The Gallifreyan Patient
by Rebekah Reynolds
Summary: When he brought The Master on board the TARDIS to try to help him after the year that never was The Doctor couldn't have anticipated how hard it was to heal someone when you share so much history. Rated M for themes
1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

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><p>The Master couldn't sleep. He couldn't waste the few hours of peace he had before he was abandoned to the drums again, lying in bed with his ear pressed against the pale flesh of his companion's chest he concentrated on the continuous thump of his lover's double heartbeat. Louder than the drums which haunted him and stronger than the pain which had become part of his daily life the organic rhythm filed his mind. It was the only thing he ever wanted to hear and knowing that it would be over in a few short hours once would have been enough to bring tears to his tired eyes. At the edge of his consciousness he could feel the man dreaming beside him, but he didn't intrude, half afraid and half hoping that he would see himself there. Besides, he didn't want to risk upsetting the Doctor and being left alone again.<p>

For the few hours a day that the Doctor lay with him here the Master felt like himself, not the version of himself who would kill a man just to hear him scream or to push away the urge to scream he was forced to live with because for the constant pounding in his skull but the man who the Doctor had wanted to save when he took him off the Valiant after he almost managed to die. The man he had known when they grew up together. The Master had tried so hard to be that man in the last few weeks but it was so hard to go back. Living a slave to the drums for almost a millennium he was left with scars and guilt and he spent most of his time trying to think clearly leaving little time for self improvement. He had his good days and on those days he would talk to the Doctor as they piloted the TARDIS together - unless of course the Doctor had one of his human companions on board, on those days it didn't matter how 'well behaved' he had been or how long he had gone without an 'episode', he was locked in his rooms and left at the mercy of the drums.

This was what the Doctor did. He allowed the Master a few hours of peace then left him alone and unable to cope again. The Master may have tortured and killed people to satisfy his blood-lust but he thought that it was the Doctor who was truly cruel, keeping a single man in his own personal hell but giving him a taste of heaven each day. But maybe he deserved to suffer like this, or maybe it was self inflicted and it was time for him to stand on his own two feet again. There's a saying that when you can't run you crawl, and when you can't crawl you find someone to carry you. But sometimes the person who carries you doesn't want to let go, and then your legs can't get strong again. Soon the Master would have to be stronger than ever because one day the Doctor would wake up and decide he didn't want him, or that he was better and didn't need to be taken care of anymore. One day he would find himself alone, so he reasoned that it was better to leave than to be the one who was left. Pressing a final kiss to his sleeping partner's lips he swung his legs off the side of the bed and making a quick stop at the wardrobe made his way through the console room and off the TARDIS.

"Take care of him old girl, make sure to get him where he needs to be, and not to where he wants to be" _because I'm not strong enough to stay away if he finds me too soon._

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><p><strong>Repost in the big crazy procrastination rewrite 3012/13**


	2. Tired

**CHAPTER 1**

The Doctor hadn't slept in four days, It wasn't that he usually slept all that much and occasionally he did even go a day or two without his customary few hours but four days, four stressful and draining days was enough for him to be feeling the effects. It was however necessary at the moment, the Doctor had found himself with a patient, and one who had to be watched constantly. Since the master came on board the TARDIS a week before he had tried to kill the doctor twenty nine times and had almost crashed the TARDIS into various suns, several moons and half a dozen war zones. The doctor was almost ready to take the master back to earth and let Jack or Martha deal with him and if taking him back wouldn't be as bad as handing him over to UNIT and giving the humans a timelord to experiment on as little more than a laboratory sample then the doctor would do it in a heartbeat. If he could live with himself after abandoning the only remaining member of his species then he would do it, but he couldn't so he would have to live without sleep for a while longer instead. It had to get easier, it wasn't like it could get much worse.

It did. The doctor slumped against the wood of the Master's bedroom door and ran a hand across his tired face, he was so out of his depth. Martha had warned him but he had to try but he had no idea how to help the Master and his charge became more and more uncontrollable each day, his mental state was erratic; ranging from uncontrollable rage to childlike mischief which the Doctor remembered from their childhood but there were his darker moods too - when the TARDIS was quiet for brief periods and the quiet hum of the engine tried to lull the Doctor to sleep he could not enjoy the peace because it usually meant that he would soon find the master cowering in a dark alcove somewhere clutching his head as the drums became to much to bear. That was the thing that broke his hearts to see as no matter what he had become the Master had once been his friend and he was obviously in serious pain. The episodes also seemed to be lasting longer and longer and the Master who had at first been almost silent in his whimpering when whatever was in his head became too much soon escalated into screams.

After another three days of the master's cycle of destruction and screaming the Doctor had had enough. He needed to sleep and taking a syringe from the infirmary he filled it with a sedative strong enough to knock out a timelord and dragged the unconscious Master to a room in the lower levels of the TARDIS, it was a bedroom that was rarely used but was far enough away from the Doctor's room that he wouldn't be able to hear the master no matter how loud he was and though he knew he would later feel guilty for resorting to the drugs he had promised himself he wouldn't use right now all he could do was push himself off the door and to his own room where he collapsed onto his own bed and was immediately asleep.

Later that day the Doctor woke up feeling much better, he felt almost alarmed to find that he had slept for eleven hours and went into the console room rubbing sleep from his eyes to see what kind of havoc the Master had wreaked on his ship while he had been resting. The sedative will have worn off hours ago and he couldn't imagine that the Master would have reacted too well to being drugged without his consent. Surprisingly he entered the console room to find that nothing was amiss, all of the systems were as he left them and the TARDIS sang into his mind as he approached and checking the console he sound that she was holding the Master where the Doctor had left him by keeping that room out of sync with the rest of the ship. The Master would not be able to escape until the Doctor released him which he had been about to do when his phone rang, and this wasn't just any phone; it was the special phone that only prime minister's and Madonna had the number for. Crossing his fingers he reached for the handset

"Please be madge please be madge...Oh prime minister, how are you today? Aliens have kidnapped the queen, I'll be right with you"

Like he so often did The Doctor managed to forget something very important in his hurry to go off and save the day and the Master was left waiting to be released, his fury only growing with each passing hour.


	3. Neglected

The doctor strolled back onto the TARDIS feeling pretty pleased with himself, he had averted a crisis on 28th century earth and saved a woman who had been _very _grateful for his assistance. He threw his long coat onto the hanger near the door and started up the engines, leaving the TARDIS cruising in the vortex while he went to see how the Master was doing. He felt almost felt guilty for leaving the man here while he had been off saving the world until he remembered that that same man had been a pain in his backside for the last week, maybe it would show the Master that the entire universe did not revolve around him. He touched the console and moved to unlock the room the TARDIS was holding the other timelord in when he saw how she had kept him from escaping it, his hands flew over the controls while he reversed what she had done so it was safe to walk through the door and ran away down the half dozen hallways and staircases it took to reach his destination.

In his dark little room the Master waited, really there was nothing to do but wait for the Doctor to come back. He had no idea how long whatever the other man gave him had knocked him out for so he didn't really have any sense of how long he had been trapped here and in his irritation he had smashed the room's only lamp soon after waking so for a lack of anything to do he curled up on the bed waiting with only the drums and his increasingly dry throat to tell him the passing of time. Exhausted but resisting the pull of his heavy eyelids fearing that the Doctor would come back, find him sleeping and leave him here again.

When eventually his stomach grew hungry enough to serve as a distraction and quieten the drums the hours seemed to pass even slower until finally the door opened and the Master was blinded but managed to make out the silhouette of the Doctor in the doorway. The other man was breathing heavily and tried the light switch only to find the evidence of the master's frustration and shook his head, reaching into his bigger on the inside trouser pockets he pulled out something the size of a marble, shook it roughly and three it into the air where it hovered and lit the room in a slightly blue-white light. His eyes were taking longer than usual to adjust to the new light so the Master rolled over on the bed and closed them, suddenly tireder than he had felt a few minutes earlier he decided that moving had not been his smartest move and he could barely do more than fall almost entirely face down after rolling a little too enthusiastically. From across the room the Doctor frowned – it was true that it could be another of the Master's tricks but still moved to help the other man into a seated position, what he had seen on the console screen having left him feeling too guilty not to check.. Their eyes made contact for a moment before the master's became glazed and he slumped back down again. The doctor caught him and took a good look at the man in his arms. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips dry and cracked and he was so pale that he was almost grey. Cursing the TARDIS for the first time in a very long time he scooped up the man on the bed with some difficulty and carried him to the kitchen, when he had seen that the TARDIS was keeping the Master's room out of sync to keep the other man from crossing the doorway he hadn't known how out of sync. He would have to do some calculations when he got back upstairs but he guessed that at least three hours passed in the Master's room for every one that passed outside of it and he had left the master in there for what couldn't have been less than a day. The man's condition was hardly surprising and as soon as he got him into the kitchen he put him down on a sofa which sat against the longer wall and brought him glass after glass of water and some of the leftover soup martha had made one time, one advantage of a TARDIS fridge was that things never went bad, he still had some scones of Sarah Jane's he was saving for a special occasion. Eventually the Master seemed to be done, The doctor took a blanket from the back of the sofa and watched as the man he saw supposed to be caring for and had half starved to death fell into a deep sleep, all but passing out now he didn't have to worry about missing the doctor or being locked in again.

In the weeks that followed man who had always been so loud was now silent, the doctor had half expected that once he had rested and eaten some more that the Master would scream at him for leaving him for so long but he hadn't even mentioned it, he hadn't mentioned much at all really besides the odd 'hmm' which the Doctor was having to accept as the man's answer for most questions. He had moved him from the room downstairs to a nicer one a few doors from the Doctor's own room, it was decorated in red, had a large open fireplace and floor to ceiling bookcases on one wall. The master didn't seem to care about the other furnishings but went straight for the large bed so after showing him the room the Doctor backed away to leave the man in peace. The first day the Doctor had left the door ajar behind him. It would mean that he would have to keep an eye on the Master to make sure that he didn't get up to any mischief but he didn't think that the other man would react well to being locked in again tonight. The Doctor did lock the door when he passed on his way to bed but by this point the Master was fast asleep.

After that day the TARDIS was much quieter, the Master no longer tried to kill the Doctor at every opportunity and every morning when the Doctor unlocked the door to the other man's bedroom he was showered, dressed and ready to spend the day with the doctor in the console room. Most of the time he just sat on the floor fiddling with different pieces of technology which would have the Doctor worried if he wasn't entirely sure that they were harmless, from what he could tell, the Master was building a type of transducer which converted time energy into sound, while the TARDIS flew through the vortex it would produce music. The project was frivolous but as long as it gave the Master something to do the doctor wasn't going to complain, also it would be nice to hear the vortex again, at the academy their class had built similar devices but the doctor had not been particularly interested in that particular subject so after Gallifrey burned so much of his people's technology was lost to him forever. The Master had been much more committed to his studies, almost to the point of being annoying and he still took pleasure in correcting the Doctor's Gallifreyan grammar, it was one of the few times the man still spoke and the Doctor took to infuriating the Master's somewhat pedantic nature by deliberately butchering his own language just to get a reaction out of his old friend. He always earned himself a scowl with this and when the Master didn't think he was looking, half a smirk so perhaps there was hope afterall.


	4. Coping

Falling into a routine aboard the TARDIS the Master began to find his life a little easier. Routines and plans had always helped him to focus, on board the valiant he was never bored, he hadn't won the Earth easily but watching all of the pieces of his plan come together gave him the sense of order he craved. And if he still found himself bored, hands twitching on a dull say he could always screw one of the assistants Lucy hated or go and play with the freak. Without these distractions on the TARDIS and only the Doctor for company the Master kept his hands occupied with technological projects, useless things, lest they find themselves something else to do. The Doctor still remained an almost constant source of entertainment always electrocuting himself on bits of the TARDIS, flying the damned thing almost entirely wrong and leaving his things lying about the ship then cursing when he fell over them, though as annoying as he could be at times the proximity to another timelord, just being able to feel the Doctor's mind nearby was something immensely comforting and even though the master didn't like this new reliance on somebody else he accepted it, keeping companionable silence with the other man save for when he really couldn't hold in his laughter something the idiot did.

Yes the Master's day was planned and scheduled from the moment the Doctor unlocked his bedroom door in the morning until the key turned again in the lock after he was wished goodnight. For the first week in his new room the night's had been dull but otherwise bearable, something which changed on the ninth day when as the door to his bedroom closed the Master felt a great quiet surround him, the Doctor's presence gone from his mind and the distant sound of drumming forcing its way back to the front of his mind.

Unused to having another timelord so close the Doctor had spent a week barely sleeping or waking after his dreams overlapped or were interrupted by those of the man in the next room, he hadn't thought that he was so out of practice at using telepathic blocks but when even his efforts before sleep failed and he spent another night trying not to listen in to the Master's dreams he had spent some time under the TARDIS console the next morning and set up shielding around each of their bedrooms giving them both what he was sure was much appreciated privacy and he would just have to work harder during the day deflecting the stray thoughts the Master projected towards him.

Privacy gave the Doctor the sleep he needed but for the Master on that first night time seemed to stretch and twist until he felt sure he had been sat in the centre of his bed for days but the Doctor wouldn't leave him again would he? If the last time had been a mistake then he would surely know better than to put a room out of sync again. Six hours later the door reopened and an anxious and exhausted Master all but darted out of the room, for once still in his pyjamas to make breakfast before settling down on the kitchen sofa with the blankets he kept there for a nap.

The next night he tried to prepare himself, a covert scan of the TARDIS' internal records revealed it was just psychic shielding, nothing more sinister surrounding his rooms but even so the sudden solitude as the key turned in his door left the Master sure that he wouldn't be sleeping again that night. Instead sat with his back against the smooth wood of his door, turned off the light and screwed his eyes closed with his arms around his head to try to block out the crescendo building behind his eyes. The books on the shelves would never be enough of a distraction but after a few hours his own body provided a brief break in the drums and he was forced to pull himself up off the floor as his bladder screamed at him. Half asleep and unaccustomed tot he gloomy room he was half way across the room when he walked straight into the solid wood leg of his bed frame and pain exploded from his stubbed little toe to his mind giving the Master a sweet moment of clarity, swearing despite his relief at the pain in his foot the Master moved more carefully towards the bathroom where he switched on the light, relieved himself then got down onto the floor to retrieve something he had concealed under the bathroom cabinet.

It was supposed to be his last means of defence, the Doctor had never noticed the loss of a small but sharp knife from the kitchen, the man really did have a death wish what would he have done if the Master had intended to sink it into him rather than as a last escape should he need it, the doctor had taken away his right to die once when he dragged him from the valiant, he wasn't going to do it again.

He had little need for such dramatics now though, not with the promise that something as small as a stubbed toe could banish the drums for a moment. Choosing a spot was difficult, it shouldn't be somewhere that would visible during the day but had to be somewhere sensitive enough that he wouldn't need to go too deep, removing most of his clothes and contemplating the Master decided on a small area on the inside of his left thigh and sat on the counter next to the sink before carefully washing the blade, the water so hot that the initial burn when the blade touched his skin distracted him for a moment as he lay the blade flat against his flesh and hissed, a smile forming on his lips as he watched the skin go pink, an hour later once his mind was suitably quiet the Master re-washed his blade, secreted it away back into it's hiding place now wrapped in the cloth he had used to dab the small amounts of blood from his thigh and to press down on the wound when the pain faded.

As he showered the cut on his leg stung a little but had already begun to heal, to be safe he sprayed on some of the can-o-plaster he had found in a cupboard which was likely years out of date but it would stop any blood seeping onto the jeans he was ready to change into for when the Doctor let him out for breakfast. A glance In the mirror as he heard movement behind the door revealed that he looked like utter shit but despite the dark smudges under his eyes he felt better than he had in days, he would grab a few hours sleep on the couch in the kitchen this afternoon while the Doctor piloted the TARDIS.

"Master, are you cooking breakfast or shall I?" The Doctor's voice floated into the bathroom from the man's position at he entrance to his bedroom and the master shuddered at the memory of the last time the Doctor had been left in charge of breakfast: there had been banana pancakes with Marmite, as interesting as that had been the Master didn't think he wanted such an eccentric breakfast this morning so with one last look in the mirror threw on the grey tshirt he had chosen for the day and shouted out to the Doctor.

"I'll be out now."


	5. Hunger

**CHAPTER 4 - Hunger**

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><p>The two Timelords existed in relative peace together on board the TARDIS for the next few months, The Doctor had even begun to enjoy the company of the man he held prisoner. The Master was quieter than the Doctor had ever known him but when he sat on the console room floor fiddling with different devices he had the same look on his face that he did when they were at the academy together, it was amazing that the expression had survived through the regenerations while the Doctor found that his mannerisms and gestures were altered every time he changed. The Master had also proved himself to be an excellent cook even if he wouldn't tell the Doctor where he learned. After the Master had gone a week without poisoning the food or creating bombs out of cleaning products kept under the sink the Doctor was happy to leave him cooking while he saw to other things. This evening he had left the Master cooking a roast while he went to repair one of the TARDIS' circuits which had a loose connection. By eight o'clock he had been working for an hour and his stomach was rumbling, he decided to see how long it was until dinner would be ready.<p>

The kitchen was filled with the smells of cooking which made the Doctor's mouth water but the Master was nowhere to be seen, he looked around and eventually noticed a lump under the blanket on the sofa at the back of the kitchen, the Master's dark hair stuck out in all directions and sleeping peacefully with his hands raised like a baby and his lips slightly parted he looked deceptively innocent. When the Doctor sat on the edge of the couch and put a hand on the Master's shoulder the man moved closer to him and he felt the sleeping man's mind brush against his own, he tried to block the thoughts and impressions that the Master was broadcasting but failed, he got the sense of several emotions, a hidden fear which seemed to contrast with the feelings of being safe he felt at the forefront of the Master's mind, then there were the more complex emotions; a hatred which burned though the Master's thoughts was linked to the fear he could feel there, then there was the cloud of confusion and uncertainty which gave way to a glimmer of hope. In all the time the Master had been on board the TARDIS the Doctor had not gone into his mind for fear that the Master might be able to take control once he was there but with the other man asleep he was able to look around unhindered and started to explore some of the things he found interesting. He could not see the cause of the Master's confusion but saw his own face in the images there often enough to know that it had something to do with him. The hope he had felt earlier was locked inside a room of the Master's mind which the Doctor could not enter, the Master had buried his hope so deep that there was no way that anybody else could ever dream of taking it from him. The Doctor paused at a door which looked like the door to the master's bathroom but it too was locked, from inside he felt serious physical pain followed by a feeling of mental calm and that worried him but his attention was diverted when another door appeared a few feet away from him, it was the door that the Master's dreams hid behind and while the Doctor wouldn't usually approve of the intrusion he couldn't resist a peek.

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><p>Opening the door he found himself at the entrance to the Master's bedroom, the only light in the room came from a lamp on the bedside table and what it illuminated had the Doctor scurrying out of the Master's mind and coming back to reality with a nasty headache. His sudden departure had also woken the Master and the man looked up at him with confused eyes. In the Master's dream the Doctor had seen something that would have been familiar if he hadn't been watching from the other side of the room, the two of them hadn't been intimite since they were little more than boys but it seemed that the Master still harboured those feelings even if the Doctor had forgotten them through their many years as enemies.<p>

"I'm sorry, that was private I shouldn't have..." The Doctor found himself cut off by a pair of forceful lips on his own and he felt the Master's mind against his own again. This time there was no confusion, just a dark cloud of lust tinged with the fear of rejection. He found himself responding to the unexpected kiss and soon the two were breathless and flushed sat on the couch. The Master also seemed to be fully awake now and looked a little embarrassed that the Doctor had caught him dreaming about him, they hadn't been together in over five hundred years and the Doctor obviously wasn't interested in picking up where they left off or he would have tried something by now. To be honest the Master had no idea why his old feelings had resurfaced in the last few days, maybe his new-found dependence on the Doctor had reminded im of the extreme trust they had in each other at one point before he had betrayed it and destroyed any chance of a future they had. All he knew was that no matter how hard he tried it was becoming almost impossible to get the Doctor out of his dreams and now he had jeopardised the quiet friendship that had grown between them with the desires he had no control over.

They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes until the oven timer went off and the Master nearly broke his neck trying to get off the couch with his legs still tangled in the blanket.

"Hey" the Doctor caught him just before he hit the floor and helped him to his feet and for the second time in ten minutes they found themselves uncomfortably close to one another with the Doctor's arms around the Master from where he had pulled him up.

"I'd better.." the Master indicated the oven where dinner was now ready. The Doctor released the Master's waist and went to set the table. As delicious as the meal was neither of their minds was really on the food and for the first time since he had arrived on the TARDIS the Master closed his own bedroom door before the Doctor came to lock him in, needing to activate the psychic shielding before he could retrieve his knife from its hiding place behind a cabinet in the bathroom and use it to give himself some peace. The pain had become about more than silencing the drums that night, it was a way of pushing all of his emotions down, it was becoming more difficult though and he found that he needed more and more each time to get the same result. Tonight he sat naked on the floor of the shower with his blood painting the tiles around him crying in frustration that he couldn't wipe the Doctor from his thoughts. He looked at his arms and raised the blade to his wrist, so far he hadn't moved away from the spot on his leg he had been cutting since the first time but maybe it was time to start experimenting with somewhere else. He still had at least an hour until the Doctor woke up and perhaps two until he came to open the door. Safe in the knowledge that he was not about to be caught the Master made a long cut from his wrist to the inside of his elbow and after the initial flash of pain relaxed into the numbness of blood loss. It wasn't until he started to feel cold despite the hot water of the shower that he realised that he was in trouble, but by this point he was unable to make any move to help himself.

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><p><strong>AN wow...where did that come from...this was NOT in my original plan but it's what came out as I was typing, I've had to adjust the plans for the rest of the story but don't worry I will be back on Tuesday with the next part where the Doctor has some difficult decisions to make.**


	6. Change

**AN/Anybody wondering why this is up early can thank Mabudachi-trio...this chapter is for you**

**CHAPTER 5 - Change**

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><p>When the Doctor unlocked the Master's door he was met with silence and a dark room. Could the other man still be asleep? No the Doctor knew that he didn't sleep at night but preferred to nap for an hour or two during the day instead. The bedroom was unusually warm and steam billowed out of the open bathroom door and towards the Doctor. To create enough steam to fill both rooms the shower would have to be running very hot for a very long time which would make the water scalding and unbearable to wash in.<p>

"Master are you in there" He knocked on the open bathroom door but didn't look inside to give the other man a little bit of privacy. After a minute passed and he received no response the Doctor started to worry that the Master had escaped and left the shower running just to buy him a few minutes. As a quick check before he went to track down the Master the Doctor poked his head into the bathroom and was faced with the last thing he could have expected. The Master sat slumped on the floor of the shower with blood flowing steadily out of his arm. The Doctor reacted without any conscious thought and leaned into the shower cubicle to pick up his charge, not caring that the water burned on the back of his neck and his suit was getting soaked, carried him out to the bedroom and lay him down on the bed where he could figure out how to help him. The Doctor then took a step back and surveyed the damage that the Master had done to himself, there was a wound on his thigh which looked deep and was surrounded by scars - suggesting that this had been going on for a while. Then there was the more pressing issue, the long cut from wrist to elbow which blood still flowed from, though slower now that the Master had less blood in his body. He was deathly pale and the Doctor could barely find one pulse, never mind two. He didn't have a supply of timelord-compatible blood on board and by the time he got to somewhere that did have one it would be too late for the Master so as much as it pained him there was nothing the Doctor could do but hold the Master and wait for the inevitable.

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><p>The Master woke up on his bed and was confused, for as long as he had stayed in this room he had not slept on the bed so waking up here would be strange enough without the unidentified warmth on the bed next to him or the aching which seemed to take over his entire body. Speaking of his body why was he naked? The Master had a lot of questions but he wasn't going to get any answers until he moved. He sat up and looked down at the sleeping Doctor next to him.<p>

"_Okay so I'm naked and in bed with the Doctor, not exactly complaining but why is he fully dressed"_

"I heard that you old perv" The Doctor had been waking up and had sought out the Master with his mind without even realising it, giving him a glimpse into the man's surface thoughts

"What happened? I don't remember falling asleep here"

The Doctor didn't really want to answer that, if the Master didn't remember the three painful days that it had taken him to regenerate in his weakened state then the Doctor wasn't about to remind him of it, he had never had to watch anyone regenerate before and it really did look as bad as it felt. The Master had held onto his old face but there had been some changes, namely his eyes had changed colour, from the brown they had been before to green and his hair was a much darker shade of brown, it was almost black now and had grown abut an inch so looked messy and honestly didn't suit him. The Doctor sat up as the man beside him got off the bed and walked into the bathroom, all thoughts of modesty forgotten as he left the bloodied blanket behind. The Doctor followed him and watched as the Master stared at himself in the mirror.

"You didn't change your face" They made eye contact in the mirror and the Master looked at him as if he was missing something obvious

"Why would I? But where did all that extra energy go? I had enough regeneration energy to change my entire body and it only altered the most minor aspects of my DNA."

"Are you kidding, do you have any idea how much energy is needed to create a full blood supply? I'm not pretending to understand why you'd so something as stupid as killing yourself but I'm willing to listen" The Master didn't respond or even look at him so the Doctor left him alone.

"I'll make you some tea, and you should really eat something but we _are_ going to talk about this"

"Whatever" The Master had leaned close to the mirror to examine his new eyes and was paying no attention to the Doctor as he walked out of the room, since he had regenerated he seemed much more like the man had first come on board the TARDIS rather than the docile version of the Master he had been seeing lately and that worried him.

The Doctor couldn't understand why the Master would try to kill himself when he had been doing so well, inside the Master's mind when he had caught him sleeping on the couch he saw that the man wasn't as fine as he pretended to be, the pain that the Doctor had felt from behind the locked door must have been his memories of his self harm sessions but what the Doctor didn't understand was the relief mixed in with that pain, he stood in the kitchen making tea and toast waiting for the Master to give him some answers. When the Master didn't come to him he dropped off the food on the bedside table and went to the console room to park them somewhere safe for the time being. An hour later found him hovering outside the Master's bedroom door, the door wasn't closed completely and from what he could tell the man was sleeping. He would have preferred to not have to deal with the Master when he was cranky and half asleep but this couldn't wait so the Doctor was soon sat on the edge of the Master's bed trying to wake him,

"leave me 'lone" the Master waved his arms around wildly but the Doctor had expected this, it was exactly what the Master had always done when somebody tried to wake him up which is why the Doctor had come prepared;

"I brought cookies" That got his attention and he sat up, snatching the plate of cookies from the Doctor and putting two into his mouth, he chewed them for a second then made a face and spat the mess of biscuit all over the bed next to him.

"are you trying to fucking kill me? I hate cookies. No wait, I loved cookies. Damn regeneration screwing with my taste buds"

"sorry, I've got a banana if you want it?"

"I'll try it" The Master took a tentative bite out of the banana and discovered that they weren't as evil as he had previously claimed and the fruit was gone in thirty seconds flat, the skin tossed onto the plate of cookies.

"Ready to talk now?"

"Do I have to? it was an accident, it's not like I'm fucking suicidal or anything"

"And that's what I don't understand, you've obviously been mutilating yourself for weeks and I just don't understand why you'd need to do something like that. I thought that I'd been helping you but obviously it's not enough."

"So what? You're going to start hiding the pointy objects now? Because if I'm not allowed to cook any more then you're going to have to get someone in who isn't trying to fucking poison me. I'm not eating the crap you call food." The Doctor frowned, he had thought that the Master would be expecting what was coming next but it seemed that the man was happy for them to fall back into their normal routine even though it was obvious that the Doctor hadn't really been helping him.

"I've just got off the phone with the brotherhood of Mon"

"That awful pop group from the 70s?"

"not man, Mon. As in the order of Mon, the mute monks who run the sanctuary on Poosh"

"What about them?we haven't got to go save them have we? They're so _boring,_ and I swear if they try to...no" The Master had just realised what the Doctor was about to propose "you are not leaving me on that bloody moon with those bloody monks"

"they're not bloody monks they're good people who want to try and help you"

"They will be bloody monks by the time I'm through with them"

"see, this is exactly why you need to go! I don't know how to help you any more" The Doctor got off the bed and left the room, listening outside the door for a minute as the Master got up and started smashing things, only going up to the console room when the Master yelled for him to fuck off and threw something at the door. He had really thought that the Master was doing better but obviously he had overestimated his own abilities as a carer. The Master was volatile and maybe the peace of the Mon sanctuary would help him to deal with the issues that the Doctor had failed to address.

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><p><strong>AN So...the master is a silly boy isn't he? And now the doctor has realised that he's not able to help the master deal with his problems. On Monday we join the Master in the Mon Monastery and just to answer your question before you ask it: Yes the moon of the Mon monks _is _the lost moon of Poosh, but years before it was stolen by the Daleks...also Mon monks in a monastery on the moon...funny sentence**


	7. Friend

**Chapter 6 - Friend**

It had been three days since the Doctor had left the Master at the sanctuary of the brotherhood of Mon, they were universally renowned for their skills of meditation and many people suffering from mental problems went there to benefit from the aura of peace which surrounded the brothers. The Master had never liked the monks and had smashed up half of the temple the last time he was there to try and create a little chaos on the moon of peace and harmony. This time the Doctor had to drag him kicking and screaming from the TARDIS and then leave the monks with several doses of tranquilliser in case of emergency though he was assured that they would not be required. After he had taken tea with the new chief monk, who had recently been elected the Doctor had gone to say goodbye to the Master only to find him hysterical faced with the reality of being left here.

"Please, you cant leave me here, you don't know" It had taken him ten minutes to detach the Master from his leg and as he walked away from the time lord's room he heard the man throwing around what little furniture there was in the room.

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><p>The Master felt like death warmed over. Rather than the Doctor's approach to healing which was basically leaving him to do his own thing as long as he wasn't doing anything dangerous the monks were more aggressive in their approach to rehabilitation. At 0400 every morning, only an hour after he finally got to sleep he woke to find a novice stood over his bed waiting for him to wake up, no matter what he did to this monk he came back every morning holding a bowl of bland food and a change of clothes. For the first two days of his stay the Master had refused the clothes, staying in the boxers and Tshirt that the Doctor had pulled him from his bed wearing and had thrown the bowl of food against the wall where there was now a pile of smashed clay and stale food. This morning however he didn't bother fighting the silent monk at the foot of his bed, the Doctor had been gone for 72 hours and obviously wasn't coming back any time soon and while the hunger was giving him something other than the endless drumming to concentrate on starving himself seemed a little futile. He wasn't hurting anyone but himself by staying holed up in here all day so on the third morning when he woke to find the silent novice standing over him he accepted the bland food gratefully, changed into the grey cotton outfit that reminded him of hospital scrubs and followed the monk along a single long corridor until he reached a garden. The monk left him here, bowed and walked away, the Master sat on the grass next to a small pond where he sat watching the luminescent fish who swam there.<p>

"Can you hear them?" The Master jumped, In the sanctuary of the mute monks this was the first voice he had heard and it seemed to amuse the small girl who the voice belonged to that a fully grown man would be startled by her question.

"Yes, I hear them singing, how is it you can, you're human"

"My mother was human, from my father I learned to hear with more than my ears, you aren't human either if you can hear them."

"No" he looked at the little girl and they made eye contact through their reflections in the pond "I'm a timelord," she seemed to recognise the name and accepted it, she would know if he was lying.

"The monk said that you were like me, that the noise hurts your head like it hurts mine" the monks hadn't actually _told _her anything but she must have picked it up listening to their thoughts.

"You hear the drums?" she shook her head and took the Master's hands creating a link between their minds so that the Master could hear what she hears. It hit him like a truck and his head was suddenly full of screaming, thousands of voices all yelling out at once, in a way worse than his drums because each voice had a personality, he could recognise the people behind the screams.

"My ship was failing, there was a creature and it came from the dark to kill us. When the rescue craft came I was the only one left" She took her hands back and looked up at him, his new eyes meeting the too-old eyes of this child whose innocence was tainted by the memories which haunted her.

They sat in companionable silence for over an hour, watching the fish swim in the pond dipping their fingers into the cool water, while the Master did it to attract the fish and watch them move around is hand the child seemed more interested in the water, dancing her fingertips across the surface and watching the ripples.

"You like water."

She smiled at him "For as long as I remember water has been what keeps me grounded, even as an infant I loved the water, my father saw this and chose my name"

"What did he choose?"

"Nharta, I'm Nharta Kaleem"

"Nice to meet you Nharta Kaleem,"

"And... You don't have a name" she frowned as she looked into his mind for it "only a title"

"It suits me fine"

"You like to think so, but if you want him to love you then you need to be more" and with that the cryptic child too old for her age stood and took the hand of a waiting monk and walked away from the garden and along the opposite corridor than the Master had come from to return to her room.

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><p>The Doctor parked the TARDIS on a street corner in west London a few doors away from the house he had come to visit. He rang the bell and within a minute he was pulled into a hug by Martha Jones, this time he had remembered to ring ahead so that she would be home when he arrived, he needed her advice so accepted her offer of tea and they sat at the kitchen table as she waited for him to tell her the reason for his visit.<p>

"Where's the Master? You didn't leave him on the TARDIS did you?" Martha's distrust of the man who had once held so much power still showed even though she trusted the Doctor's ability to keep him contained on-board his ship.

"I've left him with some old friends for a few days to see If they can help him," the Doctor went on to explain his failure to be of any real help to the man he had promised to help. Martha didn't like the Master and wasn't particularly concerned with easing the man's suffering but caring for someone mentally ill was difficult and it had obviously taken a toll on the Doctor who looked exhausted and was obviously desperate if he had come to the woman who hated his patient more than anyone to beg her for help.

The Doctor left the Jones household feeling a little better, in talking to Martha he had got what he was feeling out and she had given him helpful advice about most things – she had advised him that if the Master had honestly wanted to kill himself then he would keep trying as suicidal patients tended to carry on until they succeeded but they had decided the Doctor should help him to address the self harm issue first so that he was less likely to have another "accident"

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><p><strong>AN Hi there kiddies! The doctor is finally getting some advice on how to help the master and we should see some improvements in his condition pretty soon. Hope you liked this chapter, the next one will be up on Friday when we rejoin the master at the monastery where he learns how to turn his pain into something constructive with the help of a certain little mental patient. In case you're wondering about her name, Nharta is a rough translation (with added girly points) of the Arabic word for river, she likes water so I just went from there...Kaleem is just her last name...it was the first Arabic name that came to mind.**


	8. Therapy

Chapter 7 - Therapy

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><p>"Good morning Jimbo" As usual the monk at the end of his bed did not respond but the master had dubbed the mute monk who woke him up each morning jimbo and greeted him every day just in case he had decided to abandon his vows of silence overnight. His routine here at the monastery was simple; he woke up, ate and bathed then spent some time in the garden talking to Nharta. It was strange because he had never liked children and had always found them to be too stupid to be interesting but this one was different. Not only had she seen death on board that drifting ship but she had felt it too, not having the control over a psychic abilities that an adult would and being unable to block out what the adults on board were broadcasting as they died. As a result the girl was old beyond her short years and though she had the body of an seven year old she had been forced to grow up by what she had seen. The master had been helping her over the last weeks by teaching her some telepathic games he had played as a child, they worked on building up her defences so that she could block other's intrusive thoughts, it was something that should have been done by her father but as he was gone the Master took on the role and honestly he had quite enjoyed playing parent.<p>

This morning when the Master arrived in the garden he found Nharta sat next to the pool with both of her hands flat against the bottom of the shallow pond with tears streaming down her face.

"What? What's the matter" Nharta didn't respond, just took down the shields around her thoughts to show the Master what was bothering her, the screaming was louder than he had ever heard it and I seemed that even using water to ground herself she couldn't get them under control.

"need...need to go to my room" That was all the Master needed to hear, he scooped up the scared child who clung to him for dear life and carried her along the abandoned corridor to the room she slept in. He had never been inside before but the layout was the same as his so he set her down and watched as she pulled out a large canvas from one corner and a box of paints then proceeded to start a painting. He tried to ask her what she was doing but she ignored him and kept working. The Master watched her for hours till the sky was orange and the sun was setting, sat on the bed he had almost fallen asleep when the little girl in front of him declared that she was finished and pulled him from his seat to look at her work.

It was the most bizarre piece of art he had ever seen, colours swirled and collided across and endless night sky, just looking at it made him sad and he didn't know why.

"This is what I hear, when they get too loud this is all there is in my head and I can't contain it"

"so you paint it?" She nodded "It's beautiful"

"It's the screams of a thousand who live in my head" The Master then realised that he had misinterpreted the painting, what he had thought were stars were in fact the voices in Nharta's mind, she painted each of their screams individually and the swirling colours linked between them to show how the screams blended together into a continuous howl. Each of the dots was different, some had sparks coming off them while others were softer, showing the different personalities behind the cries.

"I'm sorry" There wasn't much else that the master could say but when she came to him he held her, rocking her back and forth like the substitute father he had become "I'm sorry you have to hear this"

"Today was a bad day, and the painting helps." her voice was muffled as she hid her face in his grey covered chest. He stood and carried the exhausted child to her bed, covered her up and sat next to her to say good night. He was about to leave when he felt her mind brush against his and turned back to her.

"Take some paints and see if it helps tonight" He hadn't told her that the drums had begun their nightly crescendo already but she must have heard them in his mind.

"Are you sure?"

"I have lots, just paint what you feel and you'll sleep better"

So that was how the Master came to be sat in his room at three in the morning with smudges of paint on his face and hands in front of a canvas which he smiled at in satisfaction before going to bed and getting a few hours sleep before his day began again.

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><p>The Doctor parked the TARDIS a few metres away from the large wooden doors of the Mon sanctuary. It was mid morning and the moon was facing the southern continents of Poosh giving him a view of the deserts and vast cities on that side of the planet they were orbiting. The door was answered after only a few minutes and the same brother who had greeted him when he had brought the Master here had bowed to him and indicated that he should come inside. Everything was simple in the monastery, from the layout to the way the monks lived the entire place was uncomplicated and he hoped that the quiet would help the master to overcome some of his problems, armed with that hope and Martha's advice he was ready to have the other timelord back on the TARDIS and remembering how hard it had been to get him to stay here there should be no problems getting him to leave. He was certain that as soon as the Master saw him he would be running for the TARDIS as fast as he could until he heard a laugh from the corridor ahead of him that he hadn't heard in a long time.<p>

"I'm gonna catch you!" That wasn't the Master's voice, it was a child and when the Master came running around the corner only to stop dead a little girl ran into his legs.

"I caught..." she stopped when she saw the Doctor and peeked at him around the Master's legs. The Doctor was confused as to why the Master was keeping the company of a human girl who looked about six when he had been resolutely against the idea of children for as long as he could remember. On Gallifrey after the Doctor's wife had given birth to their first child his friend had stopped coming round and it wasn't long before the two Time-lords couldn't even remember that they had once been best friends, and briefly lovers.

"Nharta go back to your room, I'll come back soon I promise" he held the girls hand and looked into her eyes

"No you won't" it wasn't an accusation, she spoke as if she was stating a fact and the Master had spent enough time with the child in the last few days to know that she often saw the future before it happened so he didn't bother to argue. "Back in the box you'll grow strong" she hugged him and he was sure he felt a damp patch on his shirt but when she looked up at him her eyes were dry "but you'll see me again when you finish the painting is right" and with that she left, disappearing into her room and leaving the Doctor and the Master alone in the endless corridor.

"So. You made a friend?" The Master ignored the Doctor and walked past him towards the wooden doors which led out of the monastery he asked the Master if he didn't want to say goodbye but the other timelord just shrugged.

"You heard her, i'll be back when I finish the painting" he said as if it made any sense at all.

"What painting?"

"dunno," He shrugged and pulled open the huge door "haven't started it yet" It was a lie but the Doctor didn't need to know about his first attempt at art which now lay abandoned in his old room at the monastery illuminated by the afternoon sun through a window, the canvas showed an unfocused and crude image of what looked like the TARDIS fading as it de materialised, around it swirled his translations of the sounds of the temporal circuitry as it left without him, he had felt alone and scared in his room surrounded by the drums so had painted abandonment – like most things in his mind that led him back to the Doctor. Still the Master followed him back to the TARDIS as there was really no point in arguing but he lingered on the threshold casting one last look back at the monastery, time to get to work on that painting so he could come back soon.

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><p><strong>ANI love art therapy, painting your way to sanity! YAY! Next week the boys will be getting reaquainted if you know what i mean and there's a guest on board the TARDIS who is NOT too happy about it.**

**I've started a twitter to share info and news about my fanfics. you'll get to see sneak previews of future chapters and some of the insane ideas that don't make it into the fics, Beka_Reynolds29**


	9. Home is where the hurt is

Chapter 8 - Home is where the hurt is

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><p>Martha Jones was alone in the TARDIS, the Doctor had been gone for a few minutes and she sat on the Jump seat in the control room looking around the huge space. The TARDIS was never really quiet but she was peaceful and Martha felt the familiar presence at the back of her mind, it had once disturbed her but after a while the psychic interface becomes part of life travelling through time and space and the TARDIS wouldn't be the same without it. While the Doctor was away she dared to touch the console, he never let anybody else touch the controls and when she heard the door open behind her she jumped back like a child caught with her hand in the biscuit tin and blushed guiltily.<p>

"Martha Jones." The Master stepped inside the TARDIS and cocked his head "What are you doing here?"

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><p>The Master didn't' understand why Martha Jones was so determined to ruin his day. First he'd got into an argument with her. She seemed to be on the TARDIS just to moon over the Doctor while having the idiotic timelord convinced that she was actually here to help – he had felt his desire to kill stir and had decided it was a good time to start lunch, maybe holding a knife wasn't the best idea in his current state of mind but at least chopping vegetables gave him something to do with his hands what wasn't strangling the infuriating woman in front of him. Martha had followed him in, not liking the fact that he had walked off while she was in the middle of a rant on how she was here to help him when she could be at home with her fiancé, stood in the doorway of the kitchen she took in the angry set of the Master's shoulders, the last time she had seen him like this was on the valiant and he had ordered the deaths of a thousand children a second later, without that kind of power he would have to settle for just one life but did seem to be controlling his rage well even if he was being a little over enthusiastic with his chopping.<p>

"I really do just want to help you know" They had been silent for five minutes before Martha finally spoke up.

"But not me, you want to help him." It wasn't a question, and it was true that Martha wouldn't have offered her medical advice if she hadn't seen how the Master's condition was upsetting the Doctor. She indicated that he should take a seat and he put the vegetables into a pan for later and sat opposite her.

"The Doctor isn't trained to deal with caring for someone full time and he still thinks your cutting means that you're trying to kill yourself, he thinks you can't handle the guilt over a lifetime of bad things you've done"

"But I'm not suicidal, and as for the guilt I can manage it on my own. It's something I just need to live with" He didn't like this woman who was almost a child to the age old timelord telling him how to deal with his own issues. Martha was surprised at how much the Master was willing to tell her, she asked him about how he was coping with it and the Master explained how Nharta had shown him how to turn pain into something creative rather than it becoming destructive and he had also told her about how the Doctor had helped him: how he had picked him up off the console room floor on more than one occasion when an old memory had become too much and how he always made sure that he had enough to do that he wouldn't lose himself in depression.

"If you being here is going to help him out then I can live with it for now, just don't plan on moving in" He gave her a serious look and Martha found herself concerned by the almost possessive vibes she was getting from the master, he talked about the Doctor in a way that reminded her of how she had felt about the man just a few months before: but surely the Master couldn't have feelings for the man who had foiled his plans and now kept him here against his will, could he? And surely the Doctor would have discouraged something like that as the master's Mental problems made him vulnerable. She would have to keep an eye on that.

"look, I'm only planning on staying for a few days while the Doctor gets used to having you back but if you do need anything you can talk to me, Okay?" He agreed and though the Master wouldn't have believed you if he'd told him a month earlier the Master had made a truce with the woman who had been responsible for his downfall.

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><p>Unfortunately for everyone that truce lasted all of an hour before Martha had re-entered the kitchen to find the two time-lords half dressed and locked at the lips... and the hips. The Doctor couldn't offer her any explanation as to why he was – from her point of view - taking advantage of the man in his care , the blood from his brain being busy in another area of his anatomy at the time. And Martha had given the man a lecture on ethics while the Master slipped out of the room, he was walking away when he heard the Doctor speak for the first time.<p>

"God Martha, it's not like it means anything! We haven't been together for centuries and the Master knows I'm not interested in a relationship. Honestly it's none of your business what we do or don't do together" The Master had listened as Martha exploded back at him, even from down the corridor he could feel the emotions rolling off her, but the anger didn't seem to be directed at him so the Master was about to walk away when the doctor started yelling back.

"I don't know what your problem is! It's not like I'm taking advantage of him with the way he's been throwing himself at me" Was that true? Thinking back it was always him who initiated the kisses they shared but the Doctor had always responded eagerly. The Master thought he couldn't doubt himself any more but it seemed the doctor wasn't finished "...and it's not like there's anything between us, if he wasn't the only other timelord in existence do you think I would have taken him with me after the valiant?" so that was it? The Doctor didn't care about him at all, he had just been lonely as the last of his kind. Nharta had told him that inside the blue box he would get strong and hearing the Doctor confirm how little he thought of the man who had thought they had something together hardened him. He heard the Doctor moving to leave the kitchen and looked around for a place to hide – else his eavesdropping would be discovered – and felt the TARDIS in his mind, she showed him the way to a door he had never seen before and he darted through it seconds before the Doctor passed him by.

Inside the room the Master found art supplies, it was large and light and had two doors, one led back onto the corridor, and one was disguised as a bookcase and led into his bedroom.

"Thanks old girl" He smiled at the TARDIS' thoughtfulness, creating him a secret room when he needed it the most. Picking up a brush he painted out his frustration and hurt until he was too tired to carry on then stood back to admire his work: if he had to assign his art a style it would certainly be impressionist, but much more like Picasso than Van Gogh – the subject of his painting was recognisably the doctor but his features were a jumbled mess of all the faces and bodies the master had known him as. The hair and clothes were the same as they were now but the eyes of the man in his painting were the eyes the master had known when they were young, they were eyes which would never dismiss him like the doctor had done earlier, that doctor had not been betrayed by his best friend yet and had not grown to hate him. Though he had worked for hours the master still wasn't satisfied with his painting, there seemed to be something missing but he couldn't figure out what.

He stared at the image for a few minutes before giving up and making his way through the secret door and into his bedroom, his clothes were abandoned as he walked through the familiar room and into he adjoining bathroom where he took a shower before climbing into bed exhausted. He was just getting to sleep when he heard his bedroom door open and felt the bed dip as the doctor climbed in. The man may not care for him but the master knew that he must feel something or he wouldn't keep coming back to him like this. But he didn't question it that night, just enjoyed the feeling of being in his own bed after a week on the narrow cot in the monastery and took comfort in the warmth of another body sleeping next to him after months of sleeping alone. He woke up the next morning feeling strange though, his confusion over the sleeping man at his side preventing him from keeping his mind on anything that morning, Martha had watched him like a hawk after he had _accidentally _cut himself making breakfast in an attempt to regain some focus but in the end he had managed to shake her off and had gone back to his secret room where he painted out his confusion till he was back in control of his emotions.

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><p><strong>AN Okay I know it's crap and it doesn't really feel finished to me but ive got some major writer's block atm...the next chapter is much better so keep an eye out for chapter 8 – Pilgrim which should be up either at the weekend or on monday**


	10. Pilgrim

**AN/ Okay so we've now reached the point in the story where we found the Doctor and the Master when we started in the prologue. If you want a refresher I'd advise that you re-read it quickly. There are some references to their past here which I'm leaving unexplained. I've got another fic planned in this verse which is set during their academy days but it's not ready yet and giving it away in this fic would be too much of a spoiler...**

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><p>CHAPTER 9 – Pilgrim<p>

While the Doctor slept peacefully at his side the Master stared up at the ceiling trying to figure out his next move , he thought that he was okay with their arrangement but what Nharta had said about the blue box making him strong was bothering him, the girl was cryptic but if she said it was the TARDIS and not the Doctor who would help him then he could only agree. The TARDIS had spoken to him more in the last week than she had in the months before he left for the sanctuary and he was finally starting to feel a bit better, he spent a few hours a day painting in the room the Doctor couldn't find and had even spent some time with Martha though he refused the drugs she offered him, it wasn't the drums that were bothering him any more, as he worked his way past the noise he found that they had been blinding him to his true feelings for years. His guilt over the millions of deaths he had caused was crushing and some days it was all he could do to get out of bed and throw paint at a canvas to try to express how he felt, even though in the back of his mind he knew that it wasn't going to help him in the long run. The only way he could alleviate his guilt was by making up for what he had done, the people of earth had no memory of how he treated them so he would just have to live with that but there was a small group of humans who retained their memories of him at his worst, and one man who had had centuries to stew in his hatred for the man he once claimed to love. It wasn't going to be an easy task but the Master wanted to do what he could for the people he had hurt so while Martha was on board he had spoken to her, not just about himself but about her life as well; he learned that she had moved on and was happy, she had a fiancé who she loved and they were looking at getting a house in the next few months. She was on her way to having a normal life but he had still offered an apology – no matter how little he felt it did to make up for his actions, he had been surprised when Martha had not only accepted his apology but had pulled the stunned timelord into a hug. He had shown her in the week that she had stayed on the TARDIS that he wasn't the same man she had worked so hard to bring down and his apology cemented that knowledge in her mind, a psychopath couldn't apologise for hurting someone – they wouldn't even know that they'd done anything wrong. So as she exited the TARDIS and waved as she went back inside her house Martha believed with all her heart that the Master was a better man than she had given him credit for and that he was capable of change, the Master found this harder to believe as he went back to plotting and planning his escape, there was somewhere he had to be.

That night the TARDIS was parked in an alleyway in Martha's time while the two timelords slept, the master woke and saw his chance. Leaving the doctor with one last kiss he dressed in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, packed a spare set of clothes into a rucksack then made his way out of the TARDIS, pausing to leave a note for the doctor, as much as he needed to do this he knew that the Doctor wouldn't understand and if he left without a word the man would probably hunt him down and kill him.

"Take care of him old girl" He placed a hand on the console and set it so that once he stepped outside it would send the Doctor off into the vortex and hopefully buy him some time "make sure to take him where he needs to go and not where he wants to go" _because I wont be able to stay away if he finds me too soon _ there are some things that the Doctor couldn't help him with and his quest for absolution was one of those things, with a last look around the place that had been his home for months he pulled up his hood and stepped out into the early morning drizzle of east London. Behind him the TARDIS de materialised but the master didn't look back. _One foot in front of the other, _he kept his head up and walked purposefully out of the alley and into the grey morning on his way home.

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><p>The Doctor woke up and instinctively reached out for the man next to him only to find the other side of the bed cold and empty, he frowned and opened his mind but could not feel the master anywhere on the ship.<p>

"Master?" _where could he have gone? _ The Doctor wandered the corridors in his underpants until he reached the console room where there was a piece of paper taped to the monitor

_don't look for me please, there are some things I need to do and I know you wouldn't have let me go, sorry for leaving again , I really wish I didn't have to but there's someone who needs me more than you do ~Koschei_

He could picture the Master sneaking out in the middle of the night _just like last time,_ a voice in the back of his mind reminded him but the Doctor shook off his old anger and focussed on the task at hand – finding his runaway timelord. The TARDIS refused to help him in his search but had told him that the Master had taken a vortex manipulator with him – Great that meant he had no idea where in the universe the master could have gone. This was exactly what had happened last time, disappearing in the middle of the night _the coward_ _. And when did he start calling himself Koschei again? _The doctor took a shower, he liked to think in the shower and he almost fell when it hit him: The Master had been begging him to take him back to the sanctuary to see the child he met there for days now, that seemed as good a place as any to look for him even if he didn't know why the girl could need the master more than he did.

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><p>The TARDIS parked in the same spot he had landed when he picked up the Master ten days ago and he was pleased to see that the place looked exactly as he had left it, he had barely stepped outside when he felt the aura of peace him and he smiled, glad he'd chosen the right place to send the master after the little <em>incident. <em>As always the doors were pulled open from the inside and he was greeted by a...wait this order didn't have nuns, it was strictly a brotherhood.

"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong place I'm looking for the brotherhood of Mon" The sister smiled at him and took him by the hand and led him along a long corridor "no you're in the right place, the brothers are all busy right now but I'm sister Sara and I can help you find your way Doctor"

"Thank you Sara, wait...how do you now my name? And isn't your order a silent one?"

"Oh no the monks are silent but I never took vows, the sisters and I aren't officially part of any order we're only here help to with the children, and Doctor how could I not know you? Your image is the first thing any of us see when we enter the gallery..ah we're here." The doctor was utterly confused by this woman, she knocked on a door and when she got a reply opened it, ushered him inside then left, leaving the Doctor stood in what looked like an office but was covered in children's drawings and bizarre abstract art mainly featuring dots and swirls, there was a woman sat in the chair behind the desk and for a moment the Doctor didn't recognise her.

"Hello Doctor," She was in her thirties now but there was no mistaking that this was the same little girl he had seen a week ago "would you take a seat?" she indicated the chair opposite hers and the doctor sank into it

"I'm looking for the Master, I thought you might have seen him"

Nharta gave him a sad smile, "No. he isn't here. He went back to the wife he left behind, she is so very lost and so is he."

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><p>Lucy? Lucy fucking Saxon? What could the Master possibly want with a human woman as damaged as her? Doing what he did best the oncoming storm blew through the TARDIS in a rage, most of the damage being inflicted on the Master's bedroom where the sheets <em>that still smelt of him<em> were town from the bed, books were pulled off the shelves and as the doctor attacked one bookcase if moved to reveal a secret door. The doctor took a hesitant step inside and saw the dozens of paintings strewn about the place, he recognised himself In most of them, the most striking being an abstract piece with features from each one of his regenerations that looked like a Picasso Monster-piece, there were other paintings too, one of Martha in the TARDIS kitchen she looked so welcoming in that picture that the doctor felt warm and happy just looking at it, it was a contrast to the newly finished one on the easel which haunted him even after he left the room, it was Lucy Saxon, actually it was three small canvasses showing several Lucy Saxons, one of them was young and smiling in a wedding dress, one was still smiling but there was something different about her eyes and one was from an angle similar to the one the master must have seen her from when he lay on the floor of the flight deck, dressed in a red dress and a cold expression as the gun in her hand fired - the bullet in mid-air. This was the woman the Master had left him to find and the doctor was going to get him back, but not yet, if he went now he'd just kill them both. The TARDIS seemed to pick up on this and sent them off to a planet where as soon as the Doctor stepped out of the door he found himself surrounded by armed locals _thanks old girl, just what I needed_ as the doctor took off running into a forest he thanked the TARDIS, sometimes running for your life is just what you need to fix a crappy day.

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><p>As the Doctor enjoyed his adrenaline rush the master was in agony, fists rained down on him and a kick to his head left him with a strange floating feeling. When he had come to Cardiff looking for the fre...Captain Harkness he thought he'd be able to get more than two words out before the man started hitting him, after what felt like – and possibly could have been - hours the man stopped and walked off, his coat flapping behind him as he left the battered timelord sat in an alley coughing up blood and unable to see out of his left eye it was swollen so badly.<p>

"Christ!" a man, a Londoner by his accent crouched in front of the master and snapped on a glove before examining the damage

"Got a" he had to stop to cough "Doctor thanks" his protests fell on deaf ears as the man continued to check him over, the Master didn't want his help, he could understand the Captain's aggression, he deserved if after what he had put him through on the valiant but this man's kindness confused him, after a few minutes his world started to go dark and while he heard the man mutter something about internal bleeding he knew it didn't really matter, he felt the familiar tingling as his regeneration started and once again focussed on retaining his face, it took effort and without anything to siphon the extra energy into it went to the nearest living thing, the young doctor sat stunned in front of him.

"What the fuck just happened?" The master was exhausted from his regeneration but looked up at the man sat staring at his glowing hands

"You'll be fine, just had to get rid of the extra energy so I wouldn't change my face"

"Erm mate hate to break it to you but..."

"What did it change?"

"not your face but you're blonde" The man was reacting well to the shock...must be one of Captain flashy pants lot. The master strained to look up at his fringe and saw that it was indeed blonde, oh well he could always dye it.

"You're Torchwood?" The man nodded "Good, then when you get back to the bat cave or whatever it is you call your base I need you to do something for me"He pulled out an envelope from his jacket and handed it to Owen "give this to him, didn't really think he'd listen to me anyway so I wrote it down." The medic got up to leave but the Master stopped him

"Just a sec, need to take care of that glowing before it kills you"

"Before it? The fuck.." Owen was cut off when he found himself on the receiving end of an intense but short kiss from the weird man in front of him before he pulled away and a stream of energy flowed out of one mouth and into the other's. The master shook his head and Owen watched as his eyes changed from brown to green. Today was just too weird, even by Torchwood's standards

"Right, now I'm gonna advise that you get out of town before Jack decides to come back for you or I decide to punch you in the face for kissing m.." Once again he couldn't finish his sentence as the man in bloodstained jeans and a hoodie lifted his sleeve, tapped a device on his wrist and disappeared in a blue flash.

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><p><strong>AN Sorry about that, I wasn't going to let him kiss Owen but he did it anyway, it's his own fault for being so pretty...anyhoo hope this was okay, I've actually got two chapters for you today...because I'm awesome and you love me...**


	11. Mourn

**Chapter 11 – Mourn**

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><p>The Doctor was running, since the master left he'd often find that he <em>accidentally<em> got on the wrong side of people and today – like most days he was running for his life. His converse smacked across the concrete floor of the endless corridor and he his pursuers had just come back within his range of hearing when he felt an odd vibrating in his pocket coupled with Britney Spears' "Toxic"...Damn Martha messing with his ringtone.

"Hello" There was no response from the person on the other end

"Look I'm a little busy so..."

"Doctor" The master's shaky voice came across the phone"Please...I need you" The line went dead.

"Master? Master damn you" The doctor screamed into the phone for a moment before increasing his pace and running full tilt towards the Tardis, no longer running away from the men chasing him but running towards the Master.

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><p>In the filthy bathroom of a tiny flat in south London the Master sat for the second time this year on the edge of a bathtub soaked in blood and sobbing uncontrollably, a mobile phone lay abandoned on the floor where he had dropped it and while he knew he should clean himself up before the Doctor arrived - he would trace the call an be here any second – he couldn't find the motivation. So he stayed where he was and three minutes later when a flustered man in a brown suit came running through the bathroom door he found his ex lover sat fully clothed and soaked in blood on the floor cradling the body of a blonde woman and crying into her bloodied hair.<p>

"What have you done" When the Master had left he had been hurt and he had worried for the Master but he didn't think that he was still a danger to others, not believing that he would add to the crippling guilt that had plagued his dreams since he had been on the TARDIS, the doctor had soothed him through those nights and he couldn't beleive that the man would do anything to make that worse.

"I tried" he choked out past the lump in his throat "I tried to show her that I was different, that I was sorry but she was scared and I made it worse, I came back today and she was..." The rest was lost in the sobbing. The Doctor looked closely at the woman in the Master's arms and saw that it was Lucy Saxon, Of all the things he had expressed guilt over during his time on the TARDIS it had seemed that he had felt worst about what he had done to the once innocent woman he had married for her father's connections then killed her family and left her alone in the world. The Doctor managed to get the Master out of the shower and led him away from the bathroom, they sat on the bed in the next room – Lucy's room and the Doctor held his lover until he stopped crying unable to feel the anger which had driven him for the last few weeks when faced with the Master looking so utterly broken.

"There was nothing you could do"

"I'd already done the damage though I just..."

"But you can't change that now" He pressed a kiss to the master's forehead "Lucy thought this was what she had to do to forget and that's not your fault"

"But"

"You can't change the past, all you can do is live with it. Lucy couldn't and you'll need to be even stronger to live with everything you've done" The Master held on to him tighter and the Doctor was glad he'd come quickly.

"I don't want to any more, none of them listen, they're all so angry and I deserve it but it hurts"

"_shhh, don't think about that right now just focus on me" _The Doctor spoke into his mind, showing him images of them together, of the trip to the Glavari system where they fell asleep and got sunburned and the time that they got into a food fight while making pancakes and Martha had walked in on them having sex under the table covered in flour. The Doctor was so busy concentrating on which memories to send into the other man's mind that he barely registered that the Master was pushing him onto the mattress until he was sat straddling his hips and the Master's lips connected with his own. On the narrow single bed there wasn't much room to manoeuvre but they could worry about that later when they were back on the TARDIS. This was just a breathless, desperate kiss to communicate how much they had missed each other.

"What are we going to do about Lucy?" They had been lying side by side for a few minutes and the Doctor's mind had drifted to how inappropriate it was that they had been kissing on a dead woman's bed while she lay cold in the next room.

"There's no one to call, If you don't mind could we stick around for a few days, she deserves a proper funeral"

"That's fine" He stood and pulled the Master up with him, he handed the other timelord a key and watched as he stared at it in disbelief. He had held the TARDIS key before but only when he had pickpocketed it from the Doctor's pocket to annoy him, The other timelord had never trusted him with it before.

"the TARDIS is parked in the living room, go take a shower and get changed and I'll check the phone book for an undertaker nearby"

"You should call the police first, they're supposed to..."

"Or I could just tell the undertaker that I am the police" He held up the psychic paper, The Master didn't look too happy with the idea of anything dodgy being associated with his wife's funeral but shrugged and went to the TARDIS to get out of his bloodied clothes.

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><p>Though it was the Doctor who had called the undertakers it was the Master who planned the funeral once they got there and three days later they stood side by side at Lucy's graveside – The Doctor in a black pinstripe suit, a deep green shirt and matching converse and the Master in a black suit and waistcoat and a white shirt, he was outwardly composed but his grip on the Doctor's hand was firm throughout the priest's speech. They asked for a few minutes alone after he had finished an only then did the Master let his tears fall. He was so wrapped up in his grief and guilt that when four people arrived at the graveside he could only see them once he rubbed tears from his bloodshot eyes with his sleeve.<p>

"Oh don't do that" The one woman he had never expected to hear a kind word from - Martha Jones' mother - handed him a tissue and put a hand on his forearm. Beside her stood her two daughters and their father, the Master was confused so Martha stepped forward pulled him into a hug and offered an explanation.

"The Doctor called and once mum heard she had to come, they might not have forgiven you but this says a lot about how much you've changed" She indicated the well chosen flowers and headstone that weren't the most expensive - most of his accounts had been frozen by now and he wouldn't let the Doctor pitch in – but were exactly what Lucy would have wanted. After that they stood at the graveside for another half hour in silence, all thinking about the woman buried before them and laying their tributes. The Master left flowers the same as the ones she had chosen for her wedding bouquet – yellow and white freesias tied with a white ribbon. She had told him that the smell reminded her of her mother and he had searched high and low for the out of season flower to lay here for her today.

They said goodbye to the Jones family that evening after they had eaten lasagne in their kitchen. The Master still couldn't believe that they had accepted him and invited him into their home and he had tried his best to eat the food put in front of him even though his appetite was none existent, they had come together in their grief over Lucy's death and it had been revealed to him that during the year on the Valiant Lucy had been making sure that the Jones' were getting enough to eat and he remembered that she would try to distract him if the Master got cruel with his games, it had often meant injury to herself but she had protected them and the Doctor a lot behind closed doors and they all respected her for it even if they didn't understand it.

The kitchen table they sat around was too small and it felt like such a family space with everyone sat together, the Master had never had that and he joined in the conversation which was going on, even reluctantly answering the questions as to why his hair was a different colour. The Master had taken the train down to Cardiff where he tried to apologise to the freak, Jack had shot him through the leg and got in a good few punches before his team had pulled him off the man who had come to them in peace and been met with such violence. Their medic had patched the Master up and advised him to leave before Jack decided to come back but he had tried again only to be met with fists and kicks raining down on him again, it was nothing compared to the hell he had put Jack through, killing him over and over in the most imaginative ways possible but it seemed that eventually Jack got it out of his system and through the pain the master had heard him leave. He had then regenerated and had started his journey to London in search of Lucy.

He had expected a similar reaction from Lucy but as far as he was concerned the least he could do for the people who remembered what he had done was apologise even if they didn't believe him. Lucy had slammed the door in his face and he had left, but had gone back the next day with some money he had withdrawn from an account he had managed to hide well enough that it hadn't been frozen intending to give it to his wife so that she could move into a better flat and maybe start to rebuild her life, then he had found her in the bathroom and hadn't known that to do. It was all his fault and in a moment of weakness he had called the Doctor, hating himself for relying on the man who kept him close but didn't love him but having no other option at the time. The way that the timelord had supported him the last few days could have fooled the Master into believing that the man might feel for him but he never said it and the Master didn't push the issue, accepting the comfort as it was given without asking for anything more complicated. They left the Jones' and the Master agreed to go back to the TARDIS with the Doctor and that night for the first time since their awkward reunion in Lucy's bedroom the Master had led the Doctor into his room with an offer of more than just a kiss, now that he had made some attempt to apologise for his past actions and had time to grieve he was ready to go back to their life together. He had needed his time away to try and apologise to the people he had hurt but from what he had seen it was a selfish mission on his part, his apology to Jack hadn't made him feel better, only opened up old wounds for the Captain who was trying so hard to save the world now he had seen It end. His appearing at Lucy's door had pushed her over the edge and had cost her what was left of her life, the only people who had accepted his apology were the Jones' but they had healed themselves by sticking together rather than being alone like Lucy and Jack, he wouldn't fool himself into thinking that his words could ever make up for what he put them through.

"You okay" The Doctor had just woken up to find the Master staring at the ceiling with a troubled expression

"I'll be fine" He put his head on the Doctor's chest and the other man ran his fingers through his hair soothingly

"Good, now go back to sleep" It took a few minutes but the Doctor heard the Master's breathing even out and felt dreams touch the back of his mind. He regarded his sleeping companion and was glad to have him back, the familiar warmth at his side had chased away the insomnia he had been fighting for the last few weeks and now he watched as the Master smiled in his sleep as his eyes moved about behind their lids.

"I love you" That was easier than he thought, every time he had tried to say it while the Master was awake it caught in his throat, the Master said it often but only ever in the bedroom so it was hard to tell if he really meant it. This was a first step for the Doctor, it had been a very long time since he had told anyone that he loved them and meant it and he smiled to himself, closing his eyes and dreaming of the man he loved.

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><p><strong>AN Silly Doctor, of course you love him, now tell him to his face...his concious face! Then kiss that face and ...oh god it's happening again *smacks herself in the head for having a smutty brain* kind of an angsty chapter but this was the chapter i wrote originally that I based the rest of the fic around, it's been on my computer for about two years now and Oy does am I glad to be sharing it with you at last, Hope you're enjoying the fic and come back next time when the doctor proves that he will land on a Sunday if the Master asks him very nicely.**


	12. Sundays

**AN/ So yeah... I scene jump a bit in this chapter but I just had a few little drabbly parts that I wanted to add to the story before I write the next chapter and this gets them all out in one go. The main prompt for this chapter was my lovely unnie's comment that maybe if the master asked nicely then the doctor would reconsider his "no landing on Sundays" policy**

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><p>Chapter 10 – Sunday<p>

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><p>"No" The Master ran around and around the console away from the Doctor who was chasing him with a spoon of what he claimed was soup but looked alive. "I am not tasting another one of your damned recipes" running around and around the room away from the grinning timelord didn't seem to be working as a way of convincing him to stop so the Master changed his tactic: He stopped and let the Doctor run right into him, they tumbled to the floor and the spoon was sent flying across the room, landing in a sticky...and foaming? Pile of "soup" near the TARDIS doors.<p>

"Now look what you did" The doctor frowned at the man beneath him, who was suddenly on top of him as he rolled them over

"Well would you look at that, " The master grinned down at his lover's confused face "I've got you right where I want you" His grin continued as their lips came together and he felt the doctor's lips smile against his cheek before the master found himself back on the floor. It always came down to this, the heated kisses and their fight for dominance which ultimately ended with the Master on his back unable to form a coherent thought as the Doctor used his knowledge of the man's sensitive spots against him: Today it had been a graze of teeth on the Master's collarbone which had granted the Doctor the advantage.

"You know the console room floor isn't the most comfortable place for this?" They were lying together staring up at the ceiling in their post-sex ritual which consisted of one or the other of them complaining about the inconvenient place they had ended up lying this time, so far they had learned that the console room, the spot under the kitchen table and the squash court were uncomfortable while the carpet in the library was comfortable enough for them both to fall asleep on.

"I'm bored" The master had been tracing patterns on the Doctor's chest but had grown tired of it

"You weren't bored three minutes ago"

"No but I'm bored _now_" He knew he sounded like a child but this was the only way he could think to convince the doctor to do something "I want to go out"

"It's Sunday, I don't land on Sunday, Sundays are..."

"Boring I know" the master cut him off"But if you want a repeat of this" he waved a finger to indicate the two of them lying naked on the floor "Then you'll take me somewhere" He watched the Doctor's expression and knew before he opened his mouth that he had won.

"Where are we going then?" The Doctor got up and set about sorting their clothes to find out what was who's while the Master pulled on his pants and pressed another kiss to the man's lips before moving to the console and setting their course.

"You'll see"

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><p>The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS to the smell of salt, a strong breeze that made him glad that he'd brought a coat and a light drizzle which he had no doubt would leave them soaked if they stood in it too long. Hands on his waist pushed him out of the doors and the Master followed him out, grinning ear to ear despite the grey weather.<p>

"Beach!" he was right, it was a beach - not a very sunny beach and there were pebbles in stead of sand but it was definitely a beach in south Wales I his nose was correct. The Master was like a child at Christmas as he jumped up and down and pulled the Doctor's hand as they walked over to the water.

"Let's go in the sea!" The Doctor raised an eyebrow and wondered what in the world had gotten into him.

"It's freezing," The Doctor was _not _being persuaded to put so much as a toe in that water."and if you wanted to go to the beach there are a million different ones, warmer ones, in the universe. Why this one?"

"This one is better, hot beaches are always crowded and I want you all to myself" To illustrate his point he took the Doctor's hand and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, as tactile as the other timelord could be in private the Doctor had never allowed the Master any public displays of affection so for him to get a kiss outside the TARDIS was something worth travelling across the universe and back for, that chaste kiss that was over in a second meant more to him than anything they had shared inside the blue box. For a split second the Master's control slipped and the Doctor caught a glimpse of that thought but the Master reeled it in before the man could notice and start to pity his pathetic attachment to the timelord in front of him.

"What are you doing?" The doctor had knelt down and for some odd reason was unlacing his shoes

"Paddling, now take off your boots" Leaving their shoes where they had taken them off a safe distance from the tide the pair of timelords walked hand in hand through the surf with their trousers rolled to the knees, the Doctor had been right about the cold though and within ten minutes the Master's wet feet added to the fact that he hadn't brought a coat had his teeth chattering so they headed back to the TARDIS.

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><p>It was after midnight when the Master woke up alone, he wandered through the TARDIS until he felt the Doctor's mind and continued down the corridor until he reached the swimming pool. The Doctor wasn't containing his thoughts and they washed over the Master as he approached. Smiling at what he felt he entered the room and dropped his dressing gown at the door.<p>

The Doctor was swimming lengths, it had always helped him to think when something was troubling him but tonight it didn't seem to be working, He had felt something from the Master today that had scared him a little; The master's feelings towards him had always been intense but though it was only for a split second as they kissed on the beach the Doctor had felt so much happiness from the man just because of that little bit of the contact. If he had been feeling that; the relief of feeling accepted mixed with the fear that maybe you would still be rejected then the Doctor thought it would have shown on his face much more than it had for the Master, If he wasn't the only one in their relationship who had _complicated _feelings then the were about to face some tough decisions. Where they a couple? They hadn't even talked about anything like that, both being convinced that to the other person, what they had was purely physical.

"Hey" The Doctor had stopped and was treading water at the deep end of the pool and hadn't noticed the Master come in "You know if you think so much your head will explode" The Doctor fought a blush at the thought of being caught thinking about the relationship they hadn't even agreed to yet and the Master jumped into the pool, making a huge splash and getting water in both of their eyes.

"And if _you_ splash me again I'll make you sorry" The Master grinned, knowing that the Doctor wasn't serious and splashed him playfully

"Oh you've done it now!" The doctor pulled him close and pushed him against the wall of the pool before covering his mouth with his own and trying to keep them afloat at the same time. They eventually made it tot he steps and got out of the pool, lying together on a lounger at the side of the pool and hadn't broken contact once since the Doctor started the kiss.

"_So we're not going to talk about this?" said the Doctor's voice in their minds_

"_Do we need to?_

"_No, I think we both know how we feel"_

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><p><strong>AN For Kerry, Happy birthday even if it is a little late. **

**- Isn't the Master getting good at wrapping the Doctor around his little finger? Is it time to be worried that he might be planning something?**


	13. Love and Marriage

**AN/ Just in case you'd forgotten, in an earlier chapter the master tried to apologise to Jack but the captain wouldn't listen and beat the poor man half to death before leaving him to regenerate in an alley – there are references to it in this chapter but I didn't want to repeat myself, hence this long winded author's note.**

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><p>The Master sat in a cupboard off one of the TARDIS' main hallways with his knees pulled up against his chest and his hands over his ears, it was no use; he could still feel the doctor's anger at the edge of his mind but at least in his dark little cupboard he could cower without worrying about being found. The Doctor's presence faded from his mind – he must have moved further away – and the Master was able to regain his composure enough to wipe his eyes and take a look outside. The TARDIS created a door across the hall which he opened to reveal a bathroom<p>

"thanks" he headed inside and after seeing the state of his tear streaked face ran a sink full of water to wash his face in. Five minutes later the only evidence that he had been upset were his red eyes but he hoped that they would fade before the doctor saw him. The TARDIS touched his mind, she was ever so polite and always knocked first but once he invited her in she projected a calm happiness into him which made him feel a bit better before informing him that there was something in the console room he needed to see.

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><p>The Doctor sat in his favourite chair in the library, here he could no longer sense the master and after the argument they just had that was probably best, if he could feel him he could find him and it was all theta the Doctor could do to leave the room before he had punched the Master earlier. At least that's what he told himself; honestly he just couldn't stay mad at the Master if he could feel him breaking down in the dark because he got shouted at. Why did the Master have to pull that bloody lever? Bored with his book and refusing to be banished from his own control room the doctor was half way down the corridor when he heard the last thing he would have expected to hear today;<p>

"Master?" He followed the Master's laughter to the console room, it was such a rare sound on the TARDIS, though they had been doing well over the last few weeks the Master still spent a lotof time trying to work through his pain and grief. Usually the doctor had to make an effort if he wanted so much as a smile out of the other man so while he was still angry with him over this morning he couldn't help but be disappointed when as soon as he entered the room the other timelord cowered away from him, looking like a child caught doing something wrong and his laughter had died once he felt the Doctor enter the room.

"I'm sorry about before" The Doctor couldn't help it, the Master wasn't _supposed _to look like that; so guilty and scared so all the doctor could do was apologise as his companion accepted the hug he offered and rested his head against his chest. Things had been going so well between them for the last few weeks that he'd almost forgotten that when they argued it hurt. Today they had been on a planet and had been faced with an impossible choice, pull a lever to divert some radiation and let fifty people inside a power plant be vaporised or do nothing and watch as the entire planet suffered the effects after the plant went critical and spewed toxic clouds across the world. The Master had pulled the lever and while the Doctor knew that if he was on his own he would have done the same thing the anger he would have felt at himself after he did that had ended up directed at the Master who had eventually run away from the Doctor's yelling to hide somewhere quiet.

Back In the present the Master pulled a white envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to the Doctor.

"This is what you were laughing at...oh" he doctor's face split into a grin as he read the card "well, I think we'd better get changed, we wouldn't want to..." he couldn't carry on as the Master burst out laughing and it was infectious "Cornelius...How is she marrying someone with a middle name like that?"

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><p>On the back row in a little church in London The Master sat and gripped the Doctor's hand as the bride walked down the aisle, it was a very simple wedding and a stark contrast to his own; Lucy's family had wanted a big wedding and it had taken all of his strength not to kill them all as he waited for the ridiculous fanfare to start so that could marry their daughter and get the ridiculous day over with. If he hadn't already decided that sweet little Lucy was the girl that he wanted for his wife then there was no way he would have resisted the urge to kill throughout the long ceremony. Lucy had walked down the aisle in a white dress that he wanted nothing more than to rip straight off her when they got to their hotel and the Master had found himself tapping out the rhythm of the drums on his thigh. Today was different, the bride walking down the aisle was grinning, trying not to give in to nervous laughter as she saw her groom stood at the end of the aisle while her two friends on the back row tried not to see the name "Cornelius" every time they looked at the man, he couldn't be good enough for their Martha, nobody could but if she was happy to marry this young doctor then who were they to stop her.<p>

At the reception the Master was sat at their table while the Doctor tried to coax him onto the dance floor, the man was stubborn and refused to move for half an hour then surprised the Doctor by pulling him up half way through a song and onto the dance floor. They danced for a few minutes before the doctor noticed that the Master seemed to be steering him towards one side of the floor, or was it _away _from the other side? A glance over his shoulder saw Jack and several other people entering the reception after being greeted by Martha and her new husband. He felt the Master tense and saw the flash of fear which the other man tried to hide before he disentangled himself from the Doctor's arms and left the dance floor before the doctor could stop him. Furious, the Doctor marched across the room and pinned the new arrival against the wall.

"It's not enough for you that he's racked with guilt is it? You've got to have him scared of you as well" The stunned captain just looked confused,

"Doc I don't know what you're" He found himself cut off as the Doctor landed a punch on his jaw but while he expected more punches to follow when he picked himself up off the floor he found the Doctor's hand being held around the wrist by the Master while they gave each other significant looks which suggested they were talking mentally and after a minute the blonde man broke contact with the Doctor and held out a hand to Jack and helped him to his feet. The captain hesitated but took the offered hand and brushed off his coat just as the bride came rushing over to see who had decided to ruin her reception.

"Honestly can't you boys get along for one day?" They all looked at the woman who somehow managed to look intimidating in a veil and looked at the floor, muttering apologies until she was satisfied they weren't going to cause any more trouble. The Master decided it was better to put some distance between the Doctor and the captain so led his lover back onto the dance floor where the Doctor joined him in a very un-enthusiastic box-step

"I thought you liked to dance at weddings, hey?" The Doctor didn't answer, just rested his head on the Master's shoulder and carried on moving as he had done. When the man spoke it was so quiet that if he hadn't also been tuned to the doctor's thoughts there was no way the Master would have heard him.

"he killed you, how can you even stand to be in the same room as..."

"as a man who got angry and lashed out?" The Master held the doctor at arms length just so the man could see him raise an eyebrow at that "How can you stand to be in the same room as me?"

"because you're so much more than that"

"and so is he."

The Doctor came back into his arms then and their dancing was a little less pathetic, even if the Master did spend most of the night trying to convince the other timelord that he was fine.

It was around three when the party had all but died, a few of Martha's uni friends were begging the DJ for one more song as they tried to keep standing and after Martha was carried out of the room by her new husband to a chorus of wolf-whistles from the few remaining guests the Doctor took the bottle of champagne he had found back to their table where he found that the Master had fallen asleep quite adorably leaning on his arms as he slouched onto the table. The Doctor smiled and stood behind the Master's chair pressing a kiss to the back of his neck and watching him stir

"wass goin on?" The doctor smiled, if the Master was adorable when he slept he was even more so when he first woke up.

"I brought this" he put down the champagne on the table "but if you're ready to go..?" He didn't have to finish, they had been here since six, which was nine hours ago by now – damn Martha's friends could party – and though the Master had danced with the others once the DJ started playing the scissor sisters he was now exhausted and more than ready to get back to the TARDIS where he could get some sleep. They walked back to where they had parked – or rather the Doctor walked and the Master leaned on him till they reached his bedroom, then the master flopped onto the bed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. The Doctor smiled and got in next to him, not caring that they really shouldn't be sleeping in their clothes and too tired after the eventful day. He was almost asleep when the Master sat up next to him.

"r'you 'wake?" The Doctor hmm'd and rolled do that they were facing each other

"are we okay now? We never actually talked about you now...this morning"

"Shh," the doctor pulled his lover down under the covers "I would have done the same thing, now get some sleep" The Master moved in closer and within a minute they were both fast asleep.

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><p><strong>AN Once again this chapter is dedicated to kerry, who claimed to be waiting patiently for this chapter but i know she doesn't _do _patient... she's probably spent the last week making a voodoo doll f me and sitting it at a tiny laptop to make me finish this.**


	14. Anniversary

**AN/ Howdy kiddies, here's a tasty little gifty for you, I thought as we covered marriage in the last chapter we should see the boys pass an anniversary in this one, Enjoy :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 13 – Anniversary<strong>

The Master was in the kitchen , not really doing anything - just wiping over the surfaces for something to do which kept him far enough away from the console room so he couldn't hear the Doctor electrocuting himself as he fiddled with bits of the TARDIS that really didn't need fixing. He used to find it funny but since he had started to _care _ when the doctor hurt himself he found it best to not think about it when the clumsy timelord started playing with machinery. It struck him as odd that they had become so close in such a short space of time but that was the way it was with them, they loved, they fought and they hated with the same passion that they always had, they had never had a stable enough relationship to celebrate an anniversary . _How long till it all goes to shit this time? _ As he pondered his imaginary hourglass with it's tormenting grains of sand falling oh so fast as their time ran out he realised that it has been a year since he came on board the TARDIS, It seems like lifetimes ago but it was true, it had only been a year. The milestone was significant and the Master sank onto the couch as the date's implications dawned on him:

_**Twelve Months Earlier...**_

The doctor - with the help of Jack – had managed to drag the struggling Master through the TARDIS doors and into one of the bedrooms. The doctor had locked the door but though he occupied himself smashing up the sparse furniture he could still hear the conversation going on outside

"...Even if you could there's nothing left to save. Please Doc all you're going to do is hurt yourself when you realise the man you knew isn't in there any more.." _Damn right, If the Doctor wants his pathetic little Koschei back then he's about six hundred years too late, does he really think that things are going to go back to how they were in the past? We were barely more than children when I was the man he wanted, I've lived too many lifetimes running away from that version of myself to even pretend to go back to how I was._

"...I could take him with me, and as much as I'd love to drag it out out of respect for you he'd get a quick execution" _Come on Doctor, listen to the freak..._

"No! No Jack, absolutely not." The doctor had given a whole speech on how they were the last of their kind and how he was a good person if only you looked past the madness. The Master was about ready to throw up from the sweetness of it and made retching noises in an attempt to piss off the man fighting for the life he didn't want on the other side of that door.

"Are you Okay in there?" worry had crept into the doctor's voice and the master laughed maniacally

"Fuck you" The Doctor pulled the key back out of the keyhole and sighed as he led Jack back down the corridor to start on fixing the TARDIS, turning her back into a ship from the monstrosity the master had hacked her into.

"...All I'm saying is that I could take care of him in half an hour and then we could all move on, Justice served" Jack still wasn't ready to accept that the Doctor wasn't going to let him _kill_ the master.

"And all I'm saying is no. I'd rather give him a chance to be rehabilitated than..." he paused when they heard a loud banging down the corridor "give me a second"The Doctor took off down the corridor in the direction of the noise leaving Jack smirking under the console as he worked, it was only a matter of time before the Doctor got sick of his pet project and sent the monster to Jack to be put down. Ten minutes after he had gone running out the Doctor walked – or rather limped- back into the console room

"He bit you again?" The doctor nodded and sighed

"the leg this time though, I soniced the lock, we should be able to get all of this" he indicated the half-fixed console "fixed before he gets out again."

"are you sure you won't just let me...?"

This time the doctor didn't refuse him outright,but raked his hands through his hair and lay down next to the Captain to assist him in putting the stabilisers back together "Give me a year, If he can't show me that he's worth saving in twelve months then I'll consider your offer again" The Doctor sounded defeated, it was already taking so much out of him trying to think of ways to help the man who wanted nothing more than to kill him and everything else in the universe, he could cope for a year... surely that gave the master enough of a chance?

The Master had found out about the Doctor's deal after he returned from his time at the sanctuary, when the TARDIS started to talk to him more she told him how she was proud of him for doing so much better and she was glad that the bad captain wasn't going to take him away. The revelation that the doctor had considered having him executed had floored him, that first night when the doctor had climbed into his bed he had almost turned him away, but then he counted that he had seven months left till the end of the agreed year and decided that he wasn't going to risk the doctor calling Jack early by kicking him out of bed.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud crash followed by the Doctor swearing fluently in six different languages and he got up from where he had been sat on the couch and went in search of the doctor. As expected he found him on the console room floor but while the Master had predicted that he'd injured his leg he was nursing a burned arm. After the doctor had managed to wound himself three times in a week about a month ago the Master had stowed a med kit under the jump seat, he now retrieved it before kneeling on the metal grating which made up the console room floor next to the Doctor; It wasn't a bad burn but in the regeneration the Doctor had a very low pain threshold – usually the master found it to his advantage as it also rendered the Timelord extremely ticklish - but as the doctor winced and complained through his treatment the Master found himself blinking away tears for his lover's pain. He finished bandaging the doctor's arm and placed a kiss over the tape he applied to it

"You kissed it better" The doctor took his eyes off his arm to look at the master and was surprised to find tears running down the man's cheeks "hey" he used his good arm to pull the man don from his kneeling position so that he was sat with his legs extended in front of him while the master lay on the floor with his head on the Doctor's legs

"_What's brought this on then?" _The doctor spoke directly into his mind and surrounded by his lovers presence and able to feel that he wasn't in any real pain he pulled himself together, The Doctor leaned down and pressed a kiss on each side of his face before ghosting one onto his lip and sitting back up

"_There, now I've kissed you better too" _The master flushed, feeling better but also embarrassed about getting so upset over the Doctor's minor injury, honestly it didn't even need the bandage but he wanted to feel like he's done something to alleviate his guilt, maybe if he had spent the morning helping the Doctor to make repairs rather than avoiding him in the kitchen then he wouldn't have been annoying him by electrocuting himself In the first place

"_Or maybe you'd have just ended up injured too?"_

"Get out of my brain" The Master pouted playfully up at the doctor before getting up and walking out of the console room, the Doctor following him into the kitchen.

"Are you okay" The Doctor sat on the counter, he knew the Master hated it but it was the best place to sit and watch him cook "You seem a bit down today" The Master didn't look at him, just went to the fridge and pulled out the makings of a sandwich to start their lunch. The Doctor jumped down and stood behind him, getting his hand smacked away when he reached for a tomato to snack on but at least it was a reaction.

The Master had almost finished assembling their sandwiches when he felt the Doctor's mind touch his, at the same time he felt soft lips on his neck and bit back a moan as his lover moved higher up then nibbled at his ear.

"_stop it" _behind him the Doctor grinned

"_Say that out loud." _He tried but the doctor's hands were making it _very_ difficult for him to concentrate on making his mouth form words right now. But while he could easily stand there and give in to what he was feeling there was something he needed to know,

"_Are you going to kill me?"_

"What?"

The Master thought he was going to kill him? The Doctor was utterly confused. Why would he want to kill him?

"Time's up, pencils down, now all I can do is wait to see if I've made the grade" His voice was flat and his body language defensive, the master almost sounded like a child.

"What?" The doctor worried that the Master was having an episode, he hadn't done anything crazy in...over eleven months so why would he... realisation dawned on the Doctor, he had no idea _how_ The master had known about his deal with Jack but it would explain why he was acting strangely today. "You didn't think you'd shown me that you were worth saving?" It was the doctor's turn to have his vision blurred by tears. "Of course I'm not going to kill you you damn fool!" he turned the master around and pressed their foreheads together, his tears fell onto the Master's cheek as he tried to show the master how much he had changed In the last twelve months. The Master saw the physical changes, his three different hair colours, the different types of clothing he had experimented with until he found something he was comfortable in and then he saw himself through the doctor's eyes in so many different situations that the images blended together until he couldn't bear it and had to step back.

"Wait" The Doctor stepped forward, he had one more thing that he had to show the master and if he didn't do it now he didn't know when he would next have the courage to do it, his hand went behind the Master's head to pull him in for a kiss and as their lips met he sent out one thought with as much emotion as he could.

"_I love you"_

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><p><strong>AN CHEEEEEESSSYYY! ahhh, i'm going to vomit now, that was awful... but I bet you loved it didn't you?**


	15. Questions and Answers

**AN/ I'm bad, I'm very very bad and I'm crying as I get into the master's mind for parts of this chapter... sorry guys but I just started typing and the boys had a fight. Stupid doctor needs to be nicer and realise what a good thing he has before it's too late!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 14 – Questions and Answers<strong>

The Doctor woke up on his own in the master's bed and frowned, every day this week had been the same, his lover would disappear for hours on end and the TARDIS would never tell him where he had gone, when the master emerged he would always shrug off the doctor's questions or act like it was nothing, well the doctor was sick of it and today when the master appeared in the console room and slipping his hands around the doctors waist he found himself pushed away, held at arms length as the Doctor frowned at him: glasses on and a gaze which bored into the master as he answered the Doctor's question the same way he always did, with a shrug and the smile which would usually have him thinking of other, happier things but today the doctor wasn't going to be manipulated like that,

"Where have you been?" The doctor's voice was flat but the master could feel the barely controlled anger radiating from his lover's core and that scared him, he tried to back away but the doctor put his hands around his wrists and held him steady.

"Well?" The Master had no answer for him, it wasn't like he could _show _the doctor what he had been doing with his mornings, that would leave him too vulnerable and he couldn't take it if the doctor rejected him based on what he saw, after how he reacted to his cutting how could he trust that the doctor wouldn't make him leave again. No the Master couldn't confess his secrets to the doctor today, so he just stood there, as his lover's temper grew short and his grip on the Master's wrists grew painful.

"What? What the hell have you been doing that you can't tell me?" The Master flinched at his tone but the Doctor didn't let it stop him, moving his hands up the Master's arms to hold his arms as he backed him against one of the console room pillars.

"I'm not going to ask you again. What are you hiding?" Each word was emphasised and the Master felt the Doctor trying to force his way through the fragile mental blocks he had thrown up in response to the probing from the man he thought loved him as he proved that getting the answers he wanted was more important than the sanctity of his mind. It was an unwritten rule among telepaths that if somebody was resisting your attempts to get into their mind you shouldn't try to force them, it was the worst kind of violation to have someone probing at your thoughts and finding that you aren't strong enough to stop them.

"You're hurting me" The Master didn't know how he managed to free himself but as soon as he escaped the doctor's grip he ran from the room, the Doctor's voice following him then fading as he moved further away.

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><p>The Doctor leaned against the console and fumed at himself, why had he done that? He had meant to ask the Master what he had been doing, the Master would give him the answers he wanted and they would get back to whatever passed for normal between them. Now he had no more information than he did when he woke up and he had hurt the man who he claimed to love. The look of betrayal and pain in the Master's eyes when he had broken the Doctor's grip on his arm and fled the room had thrown a bucket of water over the fires of the time lord's anger, was getting the information he wanted really worth breaking his lover's trust? He walked out of the console room and went in search of the Master, apologising for this was going to be difficult but he felt he should do it sooner rather than later. He couldn't sense the Master anywhere which momentarily revived his feelings of anger until he reached the Master's bedroom door and remembered the psychic shielding, when his hand touched the doorknob is was disabled and what he felt almost made him run as far away as he could.<p>

In his bedroom the Master fought the tears which threatened to spill as he focused on the task at hand, there would be time to cry later. Now he had to finish what he was doing before the Doctor decided to hurry him along, he'd rather not say goodbye if the Doctor was going to be as angry as he was earlier.

"Stop!" How hadn't he noticed the Doctor walk in? His hands moved of their own accord, busily shoving clothes into a rucksack until he felt hands over his own, not painful like before, just the ghost of fingers on his wrists as the Doctor tried to halt his progress.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor didn't realise his mistake until he felt the Master stiffen at his question and the flash of fear which went through the other man's mind. Before he could apologise the Master beat him to it:

"I'm sorry, I'll be done in a minute then I'll be out of your hair. I..." His voice broke and he swallowed down the lump in his throat as he zipped up the bag and tried to move only to find the Doctor's arms around his waist and his head on his shoulder, they weren't holding him tight enough to keep him here but he was that confused enough about the Doctor's sudden change of mood that he span in his arms to see the other man's face for a second before dropping his eyes to look at his chest instead.

"Hey" The Doctor lifted the Master's chin when he diverted his eyes and felt a pang of guilt over the hurt and confusion he saw there, knowing that just a few minutes ago they had been happy and it was the Doctor who had turned the man he loved into this scared creature trying desperately not to cry while he prepared to leave his home.

"_I'm sorry" _he couldn't express with words quite how sorry he was but the Doctor hoped that he could show the Master the full extent of his remorse mentally. He got a reaction... just not the one he had expected as he found himself holding a weeping master until he thought to sit them both down on the bed while the Master cried the tears he had held back in the console room and whispered endearments and comforting words in Gallifreyan until his lover calmed down, it took an hour but the Master eventually regained his composure and returned to sitting quietly leaning against the tear stained chest of the Doctor's shirt.

"You know I'd never really make you leave don't you?" It was a stupid question, of course the Master had believed him when he had yelled that he could "_get the hell off my ship" _as he fled the console room or he wouldn't have packed a bag but the Doctor wanted to feel a little less guilty. The Master stayed silent and the Doctor's plan failed, the weight of guilt in his hearts got heavier and he held the man closer to his chest.

"well I'm promising you now, I will _never_ force you to leave like that" The Master looked up at him and his lips twitched into the smallest hint of a smile before he wiped his eyes and looked embarrassed at the size of the wet patch on the doctor's shoulder, The doctor noticed his blush and decided to get all of his apologies out of the way at once.

"I hurt you, I think I can handle having a damp shirt. I'm sorry I overreacted so badly I was just... you don't know how frustrating it is when I know you're keeping something from me"

There it was again, it all went back to his secret. The Master may not have been ready but it didn't stop him from swallowing the feeling that he shouldn't do it and taking the doctor by the hand, leading him through the secret door to his secret room and allowing the Doctor into his most private place to walk among the paintings which expressed his most private thoughts.

"This is...This is where you've been?" The Doctor put on his glasses to examine the dozens of pictures before him, he seemed to feature heavily among them and would have been flattered if it wasn't for the dark nature of the paintings, in one he wore a look of hatred, in another only one side of his face was visible as a door closed on a dark room filled with creatures. There were others but the Doctor couldn't focus on them with the others in front of him.

"This is how you see me?" His tone was controlled but the Master still flinched as he feared that the rejection he had anticipated was soon to follow.

"Those are old." He took the Doctor's hand and led him across the large room to his easel where today's paining sat from when he had left it there a few hours earlier. He positioned the doctor in front of it and stood behind him, mimicking their stance when he had come into the console room before and let his arms rest around the Doctor's waist.

The Doctor stood before the Master's latest painting and was struck by how different it was, the orange, yellow and purple tones seemed to radiate happiness and while he couldn't tell what it was supposed to be it was obviously not the same pain filled subject matter as the others.

"I love you" The Master's breath brushed against his ear and shocked the doctor out of the daze he had been in staring at the picture in front of him.

"You...?"

"That's what it's called" He indicated the picture "Sorry I've been so caught up in it the last few days but I couldn't get it right, do you think it's finished now?"

"You made this, for me?" The master placed a kiss on his neck then laughed

"I painted it _about_ you, all of them are." The Master touched his mind and the Doctor saw that since had first come back from the monastery all of the Master's paintings had features the doctor because he had been the one person he had contact with, but in the last week the Master's paintings had changed. The Doctor had told him he loved him and all of a sudden he didn't feel the need to hold himself back and it showed in this picture, the swirling, random yet still somehow serene blends of colour were the Master's attempt to express how the Doctor's confession had made him feel. He hadn't told the Doctor that he loved him too but at this moment it was obvious and he didn't need to. Being the man of action that he was the Master pulled the Doctor out of his art room and onto his bed where he proceeded to _show_ him that he loved him and they both reassured each other that they could still trust each other, the Doctor understanding that the Master would sometimes need time before he was willing to share his feelings ans the Master being reminded that the Doctor wouldn't hurt him again and wouldn't let what he now knew was insecurity over the fact that the Master hadn't replied when he said he loved him make him act like a crazy person again. He had almost lost the Master today and as he drifted off to sleep in the other time lord's arms he knew that that was something he never wanted to happen.

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><p><strong>AN Bit of fluff at the end there to make up for the other part, not much more of this story left to go, probably another chapter then an epilogue. Hope you've enjoyed the story so far and i'll see you next week for chapter 15 :)**


	16. In Sickness And In Health

**Chapter 15 - In Sickness and in Health**

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><p>"That's disgusting" The Doctor stood in the hallway as the Master threw another tissue into the bin next to the bed, it was almost full and it didn't take long before the timelord felt the need to pick another tissue from the box, cough his green mucus onto it and toss it into the basket along with the others. "seriously, I've never seen anything so..."<p>

"Shut up" The Master tried to be intimidating but his throat was so sore that his voice was barely audible. He had been suffering through what felt like the worst cold in the history of the universe for two days now and the Doctor had proved to be more than useless, he wouldn't let him out of bed but also wouldn't sit with him for fear of catching the virus.

"If you're just going to stand there then you might as well leave" The Doctor didn't budge so he deliberately sneezed on a pillow then threw it in the other man's direction then gave a raspy laugh as his lover fled down the corridor, giving a girlish squeak as he dodged the offending bedding. Alone again the Master tried to get comfortable but failed, he was freezing though he knew that the TARDIS kept all of the rooms at a constant temperature so settled himself against the headboard wrapped in a blanket in an effort to stay warm and in a few minutes he found himself giving in to the exhaustion from being awake half the night coughing up green slime.

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><p>Martha Jones sat with her feet up on the sofa glaring at her husband "Come on sweetie It's only for a few..." He was cut off when a scatter cushion few across the room and hit him in the face. "I'll go make you a cup of tea alright?" He took one last look at the woman flicking angrily through the channels before he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen.. He had just filled the kettle when he heard a strange noise and ran back into his lounge to see a police box disappearing<p>

"Right, so I've gone mad then. My wife has disappeared, there was a police box in my living room and... now I'm talking to myself, great."

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><p>On board the TARDIS the Doctor was pacing the console room while a confused Martha Jones perched on the jump seat with her hands on her lower back, it's hard to look intimidating with your hands on your hips when you're thirty-two weeks pregnant.<p>

"Doctor, what's the matter? I'm sure the TARDIS won't be happy when you've worn a hole in her floor by pacing like that" The Doctor stopped, looked down at her stomach and groaned, running his fingers across his scalp and messing up his hair

"I need you to look at the Master but with you being pregnant I don't know if it's a good idea."

"What? Why?" Martha Couldn't think of any reason why she couldn't see the master except... "He's not evil again is he?" It might have been a silly thought but it earned her a short laugh from the Doctor before the man's face fell again.

"Come and see"

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><p>In his bedroom the Master was too hot, he had asked the TARDIS to lower the room temperature but the stubborn piece of tech was refusing to cooperate, stripping down to his boxers and giving up on his plan to force the ship to help him get cool – smashing things really wasn't going to help him at the minute – the Master threw himself back onto the bed, tossed the covers onto the floor and lay on his stomach for a few minutes until he fell into a light doze.<p>

The bedroom door opened and the from his position outside the door the Doctor explained how they had been on a date at a restaurant in the sixty third century when someone had sneezed in the Master's direction, ruining their dinner and leaving the Master in his current state.

"Are you sure you want to go in there, in your..."

"Don't you dare say my 'condition' I swear I'm going to strangle the next man who treats me like because I'm pregnant I should be wrapped in cotton wool"

The Doctor held his hands up in defeat, when he had recommended Martha to UNIT he hadn't realised that she was quite so...scary, he should really call the brigadier and apologise. "I just meant that he's got a virus and I couldn't ask you to expose yourself to it."

"Thank you" Martha kissed his cheek, glad that he wasn't treating her that she was made out of glass and that his concern was for her unborn child " but I'm a doctor, so I've spent the last seven months working with sick people, I think I can handle one space virus" She shooed the Doctor away and watched as he walked off towards the library before stepping over the pillows strewn across the floor and sat down on the edge of the huge bed.

"Right you, He's gone and I know you're not really asleep" The Master sat up and immediately pulled the pregnant woman in for a hug, no matter how crappy he felt he had missed Martha, his hands were on her back but as the pair moved apart he rested on against her stomach.

"You've been busy" The last time he had seen Martha had been when she had left for her honeymoon but if he was honest he had no idea how long it had been in her time line since they last met.

"I saw you last week, I know you're sick but don't you two have some weird time sensy thingy going on? You can't even remember the last time you saw me" He explained the confusion and how the versions of them she saw last week were from later in their time line, Martha accepted it easily, people who had travelled with the doctor usually did even if it was difficult for those who lived on 'the slow path' to be friends with someone who they met out of order.

"Okay let me take a look at you then we can tell the doctor that he's stupid and it's just a cold"

The Master smiled and it brought some of the colour back to his cheeks "Oh Martha Jones I've missed you"

"Of course you have! This might be a little cold" The Master scowled like a four year old at the doctors office when Martha put the stethoscope against each side of his chest then continued her examination.

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><p>The Doctor was sat in one of the comfortable chairs in the library leaning back dangerously and tossing a ball into the air when Martha and a recently dressed Master entered the room, causing him to fall off his chair and the ball to land on his head. Martha rolled her eyes and lowered herself onto the sofa but the master moved to help his lover up.<p>

"So Dr Jones, what's the verdict" Martha gave him a look that made him feel like a stupid child, he was going to make a brilliant mother.

"It's a cold, not a big scary space virus just your bog standard man flu."

"But...He had a fever, and all that gunk?" For a man who called himself the Doctor he knew surprisingly little about illness and both Martha and the Master had to work to control their amusement.

"Well if _somebody_ had come into the room or gone out to pick up the cold medicine that I asked for then maybe it wouldn't have been as bad" The Doctor felt a little guilty at that, he had gone out to buy cold medicine and come back with a hat, but the Master hadn't asked him to go a second time so he assumed he was feeling better, as it turns out the man had just resigned himself that the Doctor was not the most reliable person to send out on errands and had got by without the medication, even though he would have done anything for some cough suppressant last night he had managed to close his bedroom door to keep it from the Doctor who was sleeping down the hall.

Martha stayed on the TARDIS for a few hours, having dinner with it's occupants and answering their questions about how she was adjusting to married life and the prospect of motherhood.

"It was a little scary when they first told us that it was twins but..." Martha trailed off, grinned at the reaction the information caused in her two friends and sat back to watch the hilarity ensue.

"Twins?" Martha nodded

"So there are two babies inside you _right now_" She patted her hands on her stomach as if to check then laughed at the Master's question "yep"

"wow" and that about summed it up, their reactions had been much calmer than hers had been: hers had involved much staring at a sonogram picture and crying until she had finally got used to the idea, once she had fear had given way to excitement and she had spent days going through catalogues and magazines looking at coordinating outfits for twins. She had accepted the fact that her life was going to change after having a child and that it was going to be more difficult having two but after being back on the TARDIS today she was glad she had made the right choice, the Doctor and the Master were happy here and she was ready to get back to her life – even if she was destined to spent the remaining time until her due date on bed rest.

The Master walked about his room tidying the mess which had accumulated over the last few days, he was feeling much better now that the drugs Martha brought him had taken effect and decided to do some laundry, picking up the discarded clothing and changing the bedsheets before climbing under the covers and getting comfortable.

"Room for one more?" The Doctor's voice came from the doorway and in the darkened room only his silhouette was visible as he approached the bed, noticing that the room was tidy he folded his clothes neatly on the dresser then climbed in next to the Master and lay face to face with him.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor had been sleeping in his own room since the Master got sick and though he was happy to have him back, the timelord was confused.

"I'm trying to sleep" He pressed a quick kiss tot he Master's forehead then lay back down "I know I've been a bit" he couldn't think of a word "distant for the past few days but you know how much I hate getting sick" The Master really did, the doctor hardly ever got sick but when he did he was the most irritating whiny patient of a nurses worst nightmares and the Master shuddered at the thought.

"You need to get up" he tried to push the reluctant doctor out of the bed to no avail. "I'm going to get you sick and then what will you..."

He was cut off when the Doctor pinned him against the mattress and kissed him with all the pent up frustration of their three days apart before looking down and daring the Master with his eyes to carry on talking.

"Now it doesn't matter, If I get sick then I get sick" He kissed the Master again and pulled is lover close "let's get some sleep, Tomorrow I'm going to show you just how much I..." The doctor stopped mid sentence and the Master saw what was coming next, grabbing the box of tissues from the side of the bed just in time to stop the Doctor from sneezing all over him.

"Ugh, I don't feel so good"

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><p><strong>AN Well...*blinks back tears* this is it. We've reached the end of the story but not to worry, once I get my ass into gear I will be posting a prequel of sorts, It shows their relationship the first time round and how they became the men they are today, if you'd be interested in reading that then click the follow author button which is on the bottom somewhere to get a notification once I post it.**

**My eternal thanks go out to Kerry, who has been using al of her voodoo powers to keep me writing this fic while I should be doing uni work, without you I probably wouldn't have finished this fic, sometimes I need a little "Kerry magic" to help the chapters along *hugs you***


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